O’Donnell happy for Dundalk to make amends with UCD win

It was a great night at Oriel seeing Pat Hoban equal the great Joey Donnelly’s goal scoring record for Dundalk.

Stephen O’Donnell says that Hoban can be so proud of himself when he looks back on his career.

He says the whole club are proud of him. The manager said that it was some signing by Stephen Kenny to bring such a player to the club.

He says nobody was ever expecting him to score that many goals when he came to Oriel first. The boss says that a player must always be hungry and motivated to achieve what Pat Hoban has done.

It took Pat ten games to get his first goal with Dundalk, and that was down in Cork. O’Donnell says it took Hoban time to settle in as he was coming from a strong Mervue side in Galway.

O’Donnell added that once he got the goal in Cork, he really burst out on the scene in the league as a real force to be reckoned with.

The manager says it would be a nice way for Hoban to break the record in Cork, as it was the first place he scored for Dundalk.

O’Donnell says Cork are flying at the moment as they have won four games on the bounce.

But he says he is really looking forward to the game after the win over UCD at Oriel last night.

Stephen says Hoban has scored big decisive goals when needed. He added that these are the kind of players needed when your team is behind as they were against UCD last night.

O’Donnell agreed that this was the kind of win Dundalk needed coming off the back of a defeat against Shamrock Rovers. He says his team were not getting carried away with the result. The manager says Dundalk asserted themselves physically in the game and that the team knew what they had to do to go on and win it.

Reacting to the Cork win the manager said that the whole table was congested.

He added that no team had gone bananas and that his team just needs to focus on themselves.

He added that the changes he made in the team that played against Shamrock Rovers worked well. His side was much more physical, and it worked.

Cameron Elliott has been working like a demon in training.

He needs to be rewarded, and he was starting with Hoban up front. The manager says his team always looked a threat. There were a lot of deliveries into the box. There were a lot of efforts on goal. He said Dundalk also had a lot of possession as well and that they need to build on that.

O’Donnell says Dundalk were very fluid in their game and always looked a threat for the entire 90 minutes.

The manager says Dundalk will have to be consistent in their game all the time. It must not be for just one game.

O’Donnell says he did not think there was much in the game against Shamrock Rovers I had said to him it was good to get the Rovers game on Friday out of their system after Dundalk had not played well.

He said Shamrock Rovers were the best team in the country, with the best resources.

He also said that Rovers have the largest squad.

O’Donnell said the turning point in the game was when Rovers went down to ten men after a sending off so early in the second half.

The manager says they gave up a goal which was inexcusable as they did against Pats. That, he says, is the real disappointment.

The manager says it’s great to have a much stronger team now with more players coming back. Louis Annesley made his return after being out with a life-threatening infection. He had an excellent game at centre half and played well alongside Andy Boyle.

Stephen says he did not know about the record when he was replacing John Martin for Pat Hoban. He says he thought it was further down the line. It worked perfectly as the delay in getting John on allowed Pat to get the record equalling goal.

He says it could not have been scripted any better. The manager says it was great to have Louis Annesley back. He had missed 16 games through a very serious illness. But the manager says he has great composure and also shows great maturity beyond his years.

Stephen says a lot of people don’t know much about the Gibraltarian international. He says he is a great prospect. He says is a great communicator, which is so important.

The manager says Ryan O’Kane and Daniel Kelly were excellent. It was the first time these two players and Pat Hoban had ever played together in a game. The manager says Daniel Kelly was superb. He said that his ratio for goals and playing is good but he has missed a lot of games through injury.

The manager says that the game in Cork will be a very tough one. They have won four games in a row since Dundalk beat them in Oriel. O’Donnell says Cork have become a very hard team to play against. Turners Cross is now a fortress.

He says they have beaten Shamrock rovers, Bohemians on their way to attempting to get away from the danger zone. But again, O’Donnell says he relishes the challenge on Friday and also playing Drogheda United away at the end of the month.

He says the matter of the loan players will be weighed up in July. Wasuri Williams was not in the panel last night or at the game. Stephen says he was at home dealing with a personal matter. He says he will be back at Oriel today.

The manager said the matter of bringing anyone new into the team when the transfer window opens in July has not been discussed. He says this is because of the hectic schedule the club has at the moment.

Alfie Lewis should be returning shortly from injury. Robbie McCourt’s injury is not as bad as initially feared. He should be back in about four weeks.