Jamie Gullan says Dundalk “need to keep going” for first win

Dundalk FC forward Jamie Gullan finally put an end to his goalscoring drought in Friday night’s 1-1 SSE Airtricity League Premier Division draw at Sligo Rovers.

The Scotsman hadn’t netted for the Lilywhites since the opening night of the season when he scored a sublime free-kick against Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium.

With Dundalk 1-0 down on Friday, the ex-Hibernian and Raith Rovers man yielded a penalty on 49 minutes after he was hacked down inside the area by John Ross Wilson.

Gullan thereafter dispatched to level matters for Dundalk to bag his second of the campaign after failing to score in each of his last nine Premier Division appearances.

“It’s been a long time since Tallaght,” he told the Democrat afterwards. “It has felt like ages since the last goal. When you’re the number nine, you want to be scoring goals, but I just need to keep plugging away, getting into good positions and getting shots away. I’ll be looking to score more.

“Personally and collectively as a team, we’ve not scored as many as we want to. As a striker, you want to be scoring goals and it has been tough obviously when you feel you’re not doing your job of putting the ball in the back of the net.

“I think today we created a lot of chances which was a lot better than the start of the season when we’ve not been creating as much, so there were really positive signs going forward tonight. We just need to take that into the next game at home, get the crowd up for it and just go for that three points that I think we’ve deserved over the last few weeks.”

Still yet to score from open play this term, Gullan could have added another to bag what would have been a first win of the campaign for Dundalk, but was denied by Sligo goalkeeper Ed McGinty.

“I just tried to cut it back on the left foot and guide it in the corner,” he reflected. “It was a good strike and a good save but as a striker, it’s my fault. I should score and you’ll go away frustrated thinking about it tonight but on another day, it goes in.”

The 24-year-old is hoping his penalty in Sligo can kick-start his season, beginning with this Friday night’s matchup with Bohemians at Oriel Park (kick-off, 7.45pm).

“I’m happy that I’m getting in the right positions tonight, getting shots away and being active in and around the box. That’s ultimately what I want to be doing. There was positive signs going forward for us tonight.”

Looking back on what has been a difficult period for the club, illustrated by the recent dismissal of head coach Stephen O’Donnell, Gullan is hopeful Dundalk can turn a corner.

“Yeah, it was tough,” he admitted. “It’s never good being part of a squad when the manager gets sacked. I’ve been involved in it a few times and it’s never good, but Liam Burns and Brian Gartland, they’ve been brilliant in trying to pick the spirits up, keep us all as positive as we can. I think we’ve shown that over the last three games in the last week, we’ve been really positive.

“We’ve not let ourselves drop tonight when we’ve gone 1-0 down which you’d expect from a bottom-of-the-league side. We all stuck together and we’ve been really positive. We just need to build on that and when we get the first three points that we deserve, hopefully it’ll be the first of many. We just need to keep going.”