Dundalk manager Ian Foster was “delighted with the workout” after the Lilywhites extended their winning sequence to six matches with a 2-0 win in Monaghan on Friday night. Ross Gaynor netted his third goal of pre-season and Garry Breen scored his first, both goals coming just before the break, while Tom Miller again shone in the middle of the park in another solid team performance. Dundalk have now won six and drawn one of their seven pre-season games, while they also have five clean sheets, scoring 11 goals and conceding just two along the way.

‘Ready to go’
And all that leaves Foster in a good mood ahead of the league kick-off next week. “I’m delighted with the workout,” he told dundalkfc.com shortly after the game. “I thought against decent opposition on a sticky, difficult, bobbly pitch that we passed it very, very well. We worked incredibly hard at times and I’m delighted for Ross and Garry who came up with two good goals, and another clean sheet which is very important. I think having seven games behind us now and a lot of work pre-season, the lads will be in tomorrow morning (Saturday) for a recovery session, and then Monday morning we’ll be ready to go.

Competition for places
“It won’t be a million miles away from that,” the former Galway United boss added when asked if the starting lineup in Monaghan will be close to that which takes to the field in Bray next week. “Obviously, I don’t want to give too much away. It’s still pre-season tonight; we’ve made eight changes, which is obviously something that you would never do in a normal fixture. What we have at the moment now is decent competition for places, so that’s all we can ask for.

Solid base
“It’s not about results in pre-season,” he continued. “I’d have said that if we had lost the last six as well. It’s about togetherness, it’s about getting to know each other, getting to know our system, getting to know our way of playing, and the lads have done really well. Clean sheets give you an opportunity to win games. If you’re safe and sound at the back, and you don’t look like conceding then there’s always an opportunity for your strikers to pop up and nick a goal somewhere. We’ve managed to do that in pre-season, all bar one game, so I’m absolutely delighted.”

Lilywhite leader
Commenting on his decision to hand Liam Burns the captain’s armband for the 2010 season, Foster said: “He’s a leader both on the pitch and off the pitch. He’s a fantastic character, he’s got the respect of the players and the staff, and I think ultimately he leads by example. He’s someone that the players can go to if they need to. The players can trust him, and you need that. His vice-captain will be Neale Fenn, another lad with bags of experience, a fantastic pro, and I’ll have no problems handing the captaincy to Neale, if and when Liam is missing. Liam has got all the characteristics of a captain, and, like I said, he has got the experience, as has Neale, and between the two of them they’ll look after the young players.”

‘In safe hands’
Fenn, Matt Gregg, Alan Cawley, Garry Breen, Shaun Kelly, Peter Cherrie, Stephen Maher and Burns all captained the team during pre-season, and Foster said that Burns was always high on his list of possibilities for the role. “I suppose, obviously, once he came in he was always an option,” the 33-year-old said. “He was always somebody we’d look at. Like I said, he has all the characteristics, and between him and Neale the captaincy is in safe hands.”