Dundalk's Mountney praises Burns for win

Captain fantastic John Mountney was the hero of the hour after his stoppage-time winner secured a third consecutive home win against Shamrock Rovers for Dundalk FC.

Mountney’s goal closed the gap between The Lilywhites and ninth-placed Drogheda United to three points at the bottom of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division table.

The 91st-minute volley from a Hayden Muller cross was Mountney’s first goal in a Lilywhite shirt since scoring in a club-record 11-0 FAI Cup win at Athlone Town in 2020.

“It had been a while,” said Mountney afterwards. “Having come back from the double cruciate injury, a lot of the motivation was to get back and play at home in front of big crowds again and be part of a winning team. That was the motivation behind it all and little feelings like that tonight just reassure you why you work hard and why you do it.”

After what had been another difficult week at Oriel Park, in which Noel King stepped down as manager just 25 days after being appointed, Mayo-native Mountney praised the impact of Liam Burns, who was taking temporary charge following King’s departure.

“Big credit goes to Liam Burns,” said Mountney. “He matched our shape up with them. We hadn’t been playing that shape at all. He explained to us how the game would be like.

“He was brilliant. The best thing about Liam was he stayed positive with everything. Everything that was going on in the background was out of our control and he focused on what was in our control and kept everyone positive, not just the lads who were starting.

“It’s important that everyone’s behind each other, lads not playing that may be disappointed not to be playing. That is a big part of it, so he done very well and all the staff have had to dig deep and take on extra roles to keep the boat afloat.”

He subsequently added: “We all came in under Stephen O’Donnell and we all had our eyes set on having a good season under him and obviously things didn’t go to plan.

“There’s been a lot of changes since then, a lot of things happened behind the scenes, but like I was saying, that’s out of our control, so we just have to focus on match-nights.”

Following the departures of O’Donnell and King, the players are imminently awaiting the arrival of a third manager throughout a season that has yet to reach its halfway stage.

“We’ll wait and see,” said the Dundalk skipper. “We’re the same as all of ye and the fans, just waiting to see who comes in, but like that, whoever comes in, they’re coming into a good group and they have something to work with. I definitely believe that.

We’ll keep doing everything we can as players behind the scenes, the staff that are here, and we’ll just wait and see who comes in and what direction they want to take it from there.”

Next up for Dundalk is a trip to Galway United this Friday night (kick-off, 7.45pm), with The Lilywhites hoping to avenge a 4-0 FAI Cup drubbing at the same venue last season.

“I think we’ve learned a big lesson from what happened last year going down to Galway. We know we need to roll our sleeves up because they’re a very manly side, very physical.

“I think we had a good physicality about us tonight. A lot of the lads on the pitch, big lads, are well able to handle themselves. We need to bring that going down to Galway.”