Dundalk rounded off their pre-season match schedule with a 3-2 loss away to Derry City on Friday evening, with a poor first-half showing seeing the Lilywhites trail by two goals at the interval. A spirited fight back after the break looked to have given the visitors an unlikely draw before Barry Molloy snatched a late winner for the hosts, however, despite Dundalk’s dominant second-half display, midfielder Paul Shiels was unhappy with the result and the side’s overall performance.
 
Giving his reaction to dundalkfc.com afterwards, the 27-year-old admitted: “We knew ourselves in the first-half that we just weren’t at the races. I think we know ourselves in the last couple of games that we’ve given away sloppy goals. Against Rovers, we gave away one after two minutes, and that’s the disappointing thing - we haven’t learned.
 
“We’ve come away and you can say we’ve done alright in the second-half. The first-half, I thought we were terrible. We gave away a bad goal, as we have done in the last three games - we need to cut that out or we’re going to be caught out in the first game of the season. It’s all about habits and I think we’ve got into a few little sloppy ones.
 
“Pre-season is all about getting you mentally and physically prepared, and to be fair, physically, I think we’re in good shape and we’re sharp. Training has been good, and everybody puts it in in training - it’s just a little sloppiness that has got into our general play, and I think we really need to cut that out come Friday.
 
“We’ve been playing good teams, and we’ve set our standards high. I could come out here and say we’ve come up here and lost 3-2 and we’ve done well, we’ve bossed the second-half, and against Bohs and Rovers, we’ve done well - but we haven’t won any of those games, and at the end of the day, we want to be in the Premier.
 
“If you go to the Premier, you can’t take moral victories every week - we want to be winning those games. That’s the standard we want to set ourselves and it’s no good getting moral victories the whole time - we have to cut out the errors and win games. If needs be, win ugly, and then build it up and play nice football and do the things that fans want to see. But I want to get back to basics and start keeping clean-sheets and winning 1-0.”
 
Despite his disappointment with recent results, however, Shiels admitted that next Friday’s opening day clash with Shelbourne can’t come quick enough. “I can’t wait. To be fair, pre-season has been good, and it’s all been building up to next Friday. I think it’s a great game to start off, for the fans and for both clubs. Shels are going to be very strong this year. I think it’s between ourselves and themselves and probably Waterford, and maybe Sporting Fingal will be there or thereabouts too.
 
“So, it will be a good test to see where we are and how we’ve got through pre-season. One way or another, I don’t think it’s going to have a huge bearing on the whole season, but obviously, whoever goes in and gets a good result, it’s going to be a nice little start to the season for them.”