Dundalk FC :: News

27 JUNE 2008: MASSIVE DENT TO OUR TITLE HOPES - GILL

As a mood of depression descended on Oriel Park, Dundalk manager John Gill couldn’t help but be the most deflated man in the ground, after watching his side fall to a damaging defeat at the hands of Limerick 37 on Thursday night. The Lilywhites put in easily their most disappointing performance of the season to date, and, at the final whistle, Gill conceded that his troops had suffered a serious blow to their title and promotion aspirations.

“It’s a huge dent,” a dejected Gill admitted to dundalkfc.com. “I’m not going to tell lies - I haven’t done that since I’ve been here. It’s a massive dent. You’ve got to be looking to win your home games. You can have all the good players you want in the world, but if they don’t have the right attitude going out on the pitch, you get what you get out there tonight. And it’s very frustrating as a manager when you’re in a technical area; you know what you want done, you know the way you want it done, you’ve worked on it in training, and then you don’t get it when they go out on the pitch.

“I’m mystified. I can’t believe that that’s basically the same team that played last week - bar three players. It’s like night and day, and I said that to them down there. I’m not going to accept it, the players know that. It’s not acceptable for a club with standards like we’ve set. I won’t accept it, and I’ll either make changes or I’ll change the personnel until I get what I want. I have a lot to mull over between now and next week, and you can safely say that there’ll be a different attitude on the pitch next Thursday. You can bet your bottom dollar on that.

“Players have to take responsibility as well when they cross the white line. I’ll take full responsibility as well, because I bring the personnel in and I pick the team, so I’ve got to take a massive amount of responsibility as well. But when they cross the white line, you expect people to do the basics right. It’s a little bit raw now after the game. I’ve got to go away and analyse it, and have a look at the DVD. I’m in shock actually, because it’s night and day compared to last week.

“Now, I still think the quality is there. There’s going to be enough people around here panicking without me doing it. The quality is there in the squad, it’s a good squad, and they’re good players. It’s very, very humbling as a manager. It’s hard to come out here, but I’m not going to come up with excuses, because you can’t blame anything. We were just inept and we weren’t up for the game, and I feel our focus wasn’t what it should have been.

“But, I’m definitely not going to panic, because, as I said, there’s enough panic around Dundalk when you lose two in a row, it’s a crisis, and rightly so, because there’s high expectations here and there’s high standards after being set. It’s not good enough, and I’m not going to accept it, and nor will the club.

“The club is doing everything in its power. The players get treated properly, like royalty. They get treated, I would safely say, better than any squad, certainly in the First Division, and probably a lot better than some of the teams in the Premier. So, it’s about time people gave a little bit more back, and maybe not get caught up in their own little universe.”