Dundalk extended their lead at the summit of the eircom League of Ireland First Division table to five points at the weekend, as the Lilywhites overcame Athlone Town at Lissywoollen by 3-0. Now unbeaten in their opening eight league games, John Gill’s men have once again set off apace, however, they now hold the biggest advantage they’ve ever had under the Dubliner. And, following this latest victory, Gill was understandably delighted with another impressive display. “I’m absolutely thrilled,” the boss admitted to dundalkfc.com.
 
“We had a lot of problems this week. I know people talk about injuries - we had an injury in the last kick of the training session on Thursday, we lost Davie O’Connor with a knee injury last week, and I thought the guys that came in were magnificent - I thought the whole team were tonight. I thought we set off at the same tempo that we played at in Limerick last week. Athlone are another team unbeaten at home, and all we can do is keep beating what is put in front of us. Whether it’s good enough or not, I don’t know, but what I do know is that there’s a great work ethic in that team, there’s a togetherness, and there’s a little bit of momentum.
 
“There’s a long, long way to go. We were in this position last year as well, but we’re in a very, very good position, and long may it continue. It’s 3-0, a clean-sheet, we’re five points clear, and you couldn’t ask to be in a better position. But, and it’s a big but, there’s a long, long way to go. There is going to be a time when we do have a dip - we all know that, it happens - but it’s how you deal with it. We didn’t deal with the dip particularly well last year. I think that with the strength of character that we have in that dressing-room now that we’ll deal with it, and we’re better equipped to deal with it this year.
 
“Everybody was clambering for Tiarnàn (Mulvenna) to get his full debut. I think everybody was surprised that I did stick him in. I didn’t want to put any pressure on him - he might not start next week - but I thought it was an opportunity tonight to blood him, and I thought he was excellent. Robbie (Farrell) was probably a bit disappointed to be taken off, but I just felt at 2-0 up that we needed to hold the ball up more, and get midfield players into it, and Trevor (Vaughan) did that. I’m utilising my squad; I’ve got full confidence in every one of them.
 
“I’m not saying I didn’t have that last year, but I just said to Gerry Scully on the way down today - if we had three players out last year, I would have been a bit sceptical going into it. But I wasn’t nervous at all tonight. I thought every one of them, to a man, have been magnificent. We may be small in numbers, but what we lack in numbers, we more than make up for in quality. Now, we really want to finish this round of matches off with 23 points, and I’m fully convinced, if we play to our potential, that we can do that.
 
“We’ve had 2-0 leads before this season, and we made life hard for ourselves - I think of the Wexford game and I think of the Limerick game. But tonight, I said at half-time, ‘let’s be professional tonight, and let’s be ruthless’. And I said to them in training during the week, ‘the only little thing I could complain about in the last couple of weeks is that when we’ve had teams on the rack, we haven’t been ruthless enough’. I thought tonight, you saw a different side to it; we were ruthless, and I thought we kept going to the 93rd minute. We were at them all the way. To see the effort, the energy and the endeavour that went in, it’s a joy to watch.
 
“These players are great to be around. Sometimes, managers get too much credit when things are going well, and get too much stick when they’re not going so well. But it’s really down to the players. I’m not just saying it, but I have a small part to play. It’s really down to the players, and I thought the support again tonight was just magnificent - they never cease to amaze me. They behaved themselves, they never stopped singing from the first minute, and I’m glad we’ve given them something to sing about.
 
“I’m only a small cog in a big wheel. There’s a great togetherness. I’ve gone on record already to say that I think it’s the best bunch of players that I’ve been around. At the end of the day, it might not be good enough, but all I know is that I like being around them. It’s a great club to be around at the moment - it’s great when you’re winning - and we’ll just keep working hard, and we’ll just take each game and each training session on its merits, and try to get as much as we can out of ourselves.”