O’Donnell backing Dundalk's attacking approach ahead of vital run-in

Stephen O’Donnell defended his team’s desire to take all three points, as opposed to settling for a draw, in the aftermath of Dundalk FC losing 2-1 to St Patrick’s Athletic.

In a fixture crucial in the context of guaranteed European qualification, Chris Forrester’s opener for St Pats was cancelled out by Ryan O’Kane’s first-ever league goal for Dundalk.

With the game poised at 1-1 in stoppage-time, The Lilywhites pushed for a winner that would have put them seven points clear of St Pats in the SSE Airtricity League standings.

The superb O’Kane, however, was dispossessed in the box by Sam Curtis, who started a quick attack down the other end of the pitch, which culminated in Ben McCormack setting up Adam O’Reilly to finish easily and win it for St Pats right at the very death.

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“When we’re at home, we try and win the game,” replied O’Donnell when it was suggested Dundalk should have settled for a draw in the closing stages.

“Ryan nearly got in to score the winner. When we’re at home, we try and win the game, and that’s what we’re going to preach. We’re at home, we’re Dundalk Football Club, we try and win the game. We don’t want to be holding out for draws or that.

“If Ryan had scored, we would have won 2-1 and be seven points ahead. We’re not getting into that. These are the margins in football matches. We just need to put a bigger emphasis on really putting teams to the sword.”

Despite suffering their first home defeat of the season, Dundalk showed improvement on recent outings, and perhaps should have come away with at least a point on Friday night.

“A lot of people go off scorelines,” continued O’Donnell. “That’s part of football, that’s what you go off. We lost the game.

“We’re always going to have good passages. I just would like to see them more, as in just go and punish teams more. That’s where my frustration is.

“It’s probably not on the goal we conceded, because I would rather be going that way, like we were with Robbie (Benson) picking it up and slipping into Ryan, than being conservative and lumping the ball into the box.

“It’s just as the game wears on, and there’s more and more spaces with the way they play, to really just go and punish them and don’t leave it for chance.”

As the season nears its end, third-place Dundalk have just four matches left to ensure they finish ahead of St Pats and qualify for next year’s Europa Conference League.

“I don’t think it’ll be about nerve. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the last four games. You can’t predict that tonight, but we’ll give it our best.

“It’s just progression. It’s just young, inexperienced players developing, and the more experienced ones as well. I read in a lot pieces at the start of the season, that we were going to come fifth and that. I don’t want that to subconsciously creep into player’s mindsets.”

Next for Dundalk is a northwest trip to Ballybofey to take on second from bottom Finn Harps this Friday night (kick-off, 8pm), while after that, The Lilywhites play two home games against Sligo Rovers and Bohemians, before finishing the campaign at Derry City.

“We take every game in isolation. Part of our team talk, our instruction is that it isn’t always going to be our way. It’s been disappointing, our away form, no doubt about it.

“We’ll have a look at the Finn Harps game against Derry tonight, take it in isolation, and see where we can exploit them and their threats.

“You’re always going to be tested in life and in football. It is (a hard place to get a result), but we’ll go up there full of enthusiasm and ready to rock next Friday.”

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Dundalk are again without captain Patrick Hoban for Friday’s visit to Donegal, while Daniel Kelly and Paul Doyle have both had their seasons ended by hamstring injuries.

For the second week in succession, Greg Sloggett was forced off with a muscle complaint in Friday’s defeat to St Pats and is a major doubt to pass fit for Finn Harps this weekend.

“Pat’s struggling with his calf, so we’ll see. I’m not sure yet (if he’s out for the rest of the season). We won’t know. We’re trying to bring him back as quickly as we can.

“Greg had a scan on his hamstring and it didn’t show anything, but obviously there was a little bit of a weakness there. He felt good in training yesterday, felt good in the warm-up, and good in the first 25-30 minutes, and then obviously just felt a little nick and had to come off.”