Point not enough for Kilduff despite Dundalk comeback

Ciaran Kilduff admitted he would not have settled for a point after Dundalk FC twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with Derry City in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.

Tyreke Wilson’s first-half strike and Ronan Teahan’s late header earned the hosts a share of the spoils after James Clarke and Dipo Akinyemi had put the visitors in front, while Derry finished with 10 men following James McClean’s stoppage-time dismissal.

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The Dundalk manager insisted the objective had been victory from the outset. “I would not have taken a point before the game. No, I wouldn’t have,” he said. “We wanted to win the game, 100%. I thought, the form we’re in, the quality we possess — the objective was three tonight, nothing else.

“So that’s why there’s that little bit of sting or disappointment in the dressing room from the lads, not just necessarily me. But we were good at times tonight as well, and you just take the point and move on.

“I don’t think at any point during the day or during that game I would have taken anything other than three.”

The draw nonetheless leaves Dundalk on 18 points after just 11 matches, a notable return for a newly promoted side. A tally of 35 points would have been sufficient to avoid relegation in each of the club’s last three top-flight campaigns, highlighting the strength of their start.

Kilduff, however, dismissed any suggestion that survival calculations are influencing the approach.

“We haven’t looked at it like that at all. We’ve looked at it as: we need as many points as we can get and see where it takes us. Every team in this division is beatable — and so are we. The points tally at the end is all I really care about.

“The tally now is somewhat irrelevant because we probably should have had two more. We could have dropped some. We probably got lucky at times.

“I think it’s the performances that we’ve shown, the bravery, the matches that we’ve won. In fairness to that group, the character they showed — they’ve gone behind again.

“We’ve been behind in games; the way we play, we’re going to go behind. But we have that belief to keep coming back. We’ve come back twice tonight.

“Going back to what felt like going behind in Tolka when you throw away a 2–0 lead. We’ve been behind in Dalymount, we’ve been behind in Tallaght, and managed to get something out of those games. Tonight was another one of those where we showed good character.”

The resilience has been all the more striking given Dundalk’s growing list of absentees. Captain Daryl Horgan missed the Derry encounter through suspension after his dismissal in the Easter Monday victory over St Patrick’s Athletic, adding to a number of injuries and suspensions that have tested the squad’s depth.

Kilduff acknowledged the aggressive edge to his side’s approach may contribute to disciplinary issues, but he remains reluctant to temper their intensity.

“Maybe there’s an argument to be made that we play on that edge of chaos,” he said.

“We’re aggressive in our press, we’re aggressive in our tackles and our duels, and maybe that’s priced in a little bit. I don’t like indiscipline — I don’t like anything like that — but we encourage getting stuck in. We encourage being aggressive, and that’s probably where the yellows have racked up.

“Probably the frustrating one was Aodh Dervin’s red card against Sligo — that’s the one I’m talking about. Obviously, it’s a tackle that maybe is, maybe isn’t, a yellow.

Daryl Horgan gets done for a second yellow on time-wasting. But don’t get me wrong — Derry themselves picked up a bundle of yellow cards and red cards.

“It’s the league, and on nights like tonight it’s priced in that there are going to be some flashpoints. But I also think the way we play means that we are going to get a lot of contact with bodies, and yellow cards and red cards are inevitable, unfortunately, at times.”