Dundalk may have failed to end their five-year wait for a victory over local Louth rivals Drogheda United at Oriel Park on Thursday night as they lost out in a penalty shootout, however, seven of the nine new arrivals at the border venue looked more than up to the task of awakening Ireland's largest sleeping giant as they tasted their first piece of action in the famous Black & White. All eye-catching, the most impressive was midfielder David Cassidy, who was, in the words of John Gill, “immense” in the battle with the Premier League champions.
 
And, afterwards, Man of the Match ‘Casso’ admitted to being more than pleased with the squad’s first warm-up match of a busy pre-season schedule. “It was good,” the 22-year-old told dundalkfc.com. “It’s disappointing to lose, but you have to get what you wanted out of the game, and all the lads got a good run out of it, 60-70 minutes of pure hard work. At the end of the day, it’s penalties, anybody can win on them - we drew nil all with the champions of the league, who had a strong team out.
 
“I think the lads gelled pretty quickly. Like we’re only three weeks into pre-season, so to put in a performance like that was good. We fought hard, everyone looks fit and everyone looks together. Last year, I was supposed to play there and I never did, and all the years before that I did, so it was actually good to get back into the middle, where you can dictate the game, instead of just being stuck out on the wing. Four of us that started tonight (in the midfield) were with each other last year, but it’s not even that, all the lads, even the ones that came on, showed a good togetherness.
 
“The atmosphere from the crowd up here as well was tremendous. These are the friendlies you need, we have a few coming up now against big clubs, and that’s what you need going into this division. So, it looks good for the season, so far.”