O’Donnell takes philosophical view of second Dundalk season

Dundalk FC head coach Stephen O’Donnell contemplated what might have been after watching his side thrash UCD 5-1 on the final night of the SSE Airtricity League season.

Coming into the last fixture, nothing less than three points would have given The Lilywhites a chance of European qualification, but O’Donnell’s team still necessitated a favour from neighbours Drogheda United, who simultaneously hosted Shelbourne.

Drogheda took a surprise 2-0 lead coming into the half-time break at Weavers Park, but ultimately succumbed to a 4-2 defeat, rendering Dundalk’s 5-1 win as merely academic.

“We knew it was 2-0 to Drogheda at half-time, but we were obviously focused on winning the game,” O’Donnell said afterwards. “We done that convincingly, so I’m happy with the way we finished. We won five of the last six.

"Obviously you’re going to go over the course of the season and look at some opportunities lost and points dropped, but I suppose a lot of teams can also pinpoint certain games where they dropped points too.”

Dundalk ended the campaign fifth in the Premier Division, eight points and two places worse off from what was O’Donnell’s maiden season in the Oriel Park dugout in 2022.

Shamrock Rovers secured the title despite accumulating only 72 points, which omitting the truncated 2020 season, is the lowest tally scored by a league champion in 10 years.

Even a slight improvement on Dundalk’s 66 points in 2022 would surely have put them in the title picture this year - something that leaves O’Donnell feeling a tinge of regret.

“There’s been a lot of games where we could look back,” he added. “But as I said, I suppose a lot of teams would say the same. Now there’s not been many games where I felt we’ve nicked a result there - I would say maybe the two Drogheda games away that we probably didn’t deserve to win. I don’t think there’s been many that we won apart from that where we sort of didn’t deserve anything from the game and got points.”

Had Shels been held to a draw in Drogheda on Friday night, Dundalk could still have nabbed fourth-place, but only in the event of them defeating UCD by four goals or more.

Michael Gallagher’s early goal for UCD left Dundalk needing five goals for that permutation to be achieved, but albeit in vain, The Lilywhites kept their end of the bargain as a Patrick Hoban brace, along with strikes from Daniel Kelly, Daryl Horgan and Paul Doyle secured a 5-1 victory - a response which ultimately satisfied O’Donnell.

“They got a setback obviously, going one behind, so they responded well. We regained our composure well, got an equaliser and going in (half-time) at 1-1. Then we were very good second half. So look, from our point of view, post Shelbourne, we finished off the season with three convincing wins, so I’m very happy. I’m happy for the players that we finished the season off strongly and there’s positivity going into the end of the season.”

When asked if he was glad to see the back of what has been an indifferent campaign, O’Donnell replied: “No, I’m not. I said that during the week to the group of players.

“I’m actually not. I’m enjoying it, really enjoying it. The back end of the season’s been positive - 15 points out of 18. I love football. I love the matches. It’s a bit of a drug. Looking forward to a game on a Friday, the ups and downs, you’re living on the edge.

“Obviously you get a bit of a breather. It’s been full on, but in regards being glad it’s over, no, I wish we had more games coming up to improve our league position for Europe.”