Dundalk FC :: News

5 APRIL 2008: GILL LAMBASTES “SHOCKING” PERFORMANCE

“We were clueless up to half-time. The only positive thing about half-time was that we went in 0-0.…the only positive from the night is that we got a point…it was a shocking performance; it was unacceptable, and I’ve told them that. I won’t accept that kind of performance…I’ve had people asking me why they’re not playing, and they answered their own questions for me there…I’m a bit flat at the moment. It feels like a defeat, even though it’s a point…if we perform like that every week, we’re way off the pace.” - Gill

Dundalk kept their unbeaten start to the season going with a fortuitous draw against Sporting Fingal in Dublin on Friday night, as David Crawley rescued the Lilywhites a precious point after a poor display against ten men. Crawley’s strike ensured Dundalk stay top, on alphabetical order only, ahead of next week’s visit of Waterford United, but following the final whistle at the Morton Stadium, manager John Gill certainly didn’t hold back in his analysis of his side’s performance.

“I’m very disappointed,” Gill told dundalkfc.com. “I’m very disappointed with the performance. If they thought I was going to go in and give them claps on the back for a moral victory, I don’t do that. I call it as I see it. It’s easy to play against ten men when you’re 1-0 down. Why didn’t we start doing it for the last hour of the game when they had ten men? I think I’ve been honest throughout my tenure as Dundalk manager, and I’m not going to start being dishonest now.

“The only positive from the night is that we got a point; the goal was a great strike. We might have nicked it in the end, but we didn’t deserve to win the game. It was a shocking performance; it was unacceptable, and I’ve told them that. I could come out here and say ‘it was great and we showed great character’, but that’s not the case, and anyone who was here knows it. I won’t accept that kind of performance, and I’ve told them that now. I never have, and I’m not going to start now.

“We were clueless up to half-time. The only positive thing about half-time was that we went in 0-0. I thought we’d come out and have a little bit more of an appetite, but we didn’t seem to have a hunger for it tonight. It’s easy to say we were missing players, but we had quality players coming in. People will say ‘you hadn’t got Bennion, you hadn’t got Lynch, you hadn’t got Shiels, you hadn’t got this, you hadn’t got that’ - we have a quality squad. And some of the people that came in tonight have answered their own questions. I’ve had people asking me why they’re not playing, and they answered their own questions for me there.

“There was a few people that sparked for us, but there was no cohesion. We weren’t a cohesive unit tonight, but what I’ve got to do is go away and try to figure out why that was. Was it because we lost a little bit of composure with senior players not playing? Lynch, Whelehan and Shiels are all leaders, but you might not have them every week anyway. The people that come in are well capable of doing the job that’s asked of them. They’re a good squad, and I showed faith in certain people tonight. We’ll go away now; we have a massive game next week. I can assure you that we won’t be as bad as tonight.

“I’m a bit flat at the moment. It feels like a defeat, even though it’s a point. Maybe a lot of other teams will come up here and smack themselves on the back and say ‘we dug a point out’. That’s not good enough. It’s just not good enough. If we perform like that every week, we’re way off the pace. We’re still top of the league as we go in next week, we’re still unbeaten which is a positive, but really, we’re top of the league and we haven’t played - I don’t think - to 75% of our capabilities. That’s being honest. In patches we have, but we haven’t put a 90 minute performance together yet, and that means you’re relying on ‘could haves’ and ‘maybes’ - you can’t do that.

“You’ve got to impose yourself on the game for 90 minutes, and that’s what I’ve told them in there. That’s what I’ll be looking for from now on. It’s a test of character now. In fairness to the players, it feels like a defeat in there to them as well. They know that they’ve let themselves down. I don’t usually do autopsies, but we had a little, frank five-minute discussion, where I said what I needed to say, and a few other people chipped in as well, which was good. It was good to get some reaction back, but we have a LOT to work on. The only good thing about it is, at least we can work on it while we’re top.

“Winning it in the end, I think, would have been a travesty on them, and then that maybe papers over cracks that are there already. It certainly wouldn’t have papered over cracks in my mind. If we had won that game, I would be saying the exact same as I am now. It would have been a moral victory, and that’s all it would have been. We went three at the back, and we stayed three at the back when we scored. We actually played with a little bit of intelligence for the last twenty minutes, but as I said, that’s easy to do when you’re 1-0 down against ten men.”

Not the perfect performance to enter next week’s top of the table clash on, however, Gill has refused to panic as he looks forward to the meeting with Waterford. “They’re a very good side, and it’s a big test for us next week. But we’ve played them before; we’ve been down this route before. This league is going to go right to the end. It’s going to be a rollercoaster ride, as it always is. I’m certainly not going to panic. I feel I have a good enough squad, and I’m not going to lose belief in them. I’m just annoyed tonight, and I’m frustrated that we haven’t been able to put a cohesive 90 minutes together, or even 70 minutes. I have to try to get to the bottom of that, and I will. I think that if we stick together, work a little bit harder and make better decisions in certain areas of the pitch, that we’ll be there or thereabouts.”