DFC | Kenny: We can’t worry about Cork

Lilywhites boss focussed on winning in Galway

Cork City made it a perfect 10 with victory over St Patrick’s Athletic on Friday night but Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny says his players must try and do their best to ignore the Leesiders at this moment in time.

Dundalk bounced back from their controversial defeat against Bray Wanderers with a 2–0 success against Bohemians at Oriel Park on the same evening. However, the gap at the top of the table is still nine points as John Caulfield’s side extended their record breaking run of wins in Inchicore.

“To be fair, there’s nothing we can do if Cork City win every game,” said Kenny. “We can’t complain. They’re winning every week and if they’re doing that they’ll deserve to win it.

“From our point of view, we can only focus on winning matches. Nine points is a big gap and that’s the reality of it but we can’t fixate on it. We just have to try and concentrate on winning matches.

“We’ve got two tough games now, away to Galway United and away to Shamrock Rovers,” he added. “Galway are struggling but they have a good team and it will be tough down there. We’ve got to make sure that we’re ready for them.”

Next weekend’s trip to Eamonn Deacy Park represents the final game of the first series. Dundalk have accumulated 21 points from a possible 30 thus far, which Kenny sees as a decent return considering the big turnover of players and the injuries that have hit his squad this season.

“Some players have been carrying knocks,” he said. “Niclas Vemmelund didn’t train this week and Sean Hoare seemed to tweak his groin tonight.

“So, the way I like to train with 11 v 11 — I haven’t been able to do that. Where we need to work on a lot of tactical stuff, we haven’t done that because of the numbers. From that point of view, that’s been a part of the challenge.”

“We’re still finding out about the players who have come in,” he continued. “Three wingers have come in, Steven Kinsella 18, Jamie McGrath who just turned 20 and Michael Duffy is 22 as well and they’ve got a lot of individual talent.

“Every team has a strategy against you. It’ll be new for them. They have to get used to that and the mentality of playing with league champions and what’s involved in that. These are all things that they are learning about.

“At times — our cutting edge — we can look quite exciting,” he added. “At other times we didn’t control the game in the way you would want us to. So, there is still room for improvement.”