Vinny Perth hailed the character and desire of his players after they picked up their third home win in the space of just six days with a 2-1 victory over Bohemians at Oriel Park on Monday night.
A couple of stunning efforts from Sam Stanton – his first for the club – and Patrick Hoban – his seventh in the last six games – lifted the Lilywhites out of the relegation playoff spot.
And speaking to dundalkfc.com after the game, the Dundalk head coach was confident his side had turned a corner. Here’s what he had to say.
On three wins in the space of a week…
“It’s three wins and also nine goals which is also important. I’ve been saying that a week like this was coming and people maybe thought I was going mad!
“Without sending cocky, the results we’ve had this week haven’t overly surprised me. Our players are good enough and if the environment is right, and the structure is right, they will achieve whatever goals we set them between now and the end of the season.”
On his side’s display…
“Can we play better than what we did tonight? Yes. Does that matter? Sometimes no, but there were so many good things about tonight. Peter Cherrie did really well and we should have been 3-0 up but their goalkeeper made a couple of outstanding saves. When you see the save he made from Sam Stanton, it’s incredible.”
Patrick Hoban celebrates after scoring Dundalk’s second goal during the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division match with Bohemians at Oriel Park. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
On his side’s character…
“The sickness we’ve had in the group really kicked in but we showed real character. You could see that in the likes of Andy Boyle, who made a brilliant clearance at one stage. Andy has been really sick for the last week or so but that’s the sort of character that he is.
“I said last week just how important the work our strength and conditioning coach, Graham Norton does and that was evident again tonight. It was Raivis Jurkovskis’ ninth game in the space of 27 days. I didn’t start him because of that but we’ve put in a huge workload and there were periods where you could see Bohs were that little bit fresher than us.
“This run of games isn’t over yet, though, because we have to focus on Finn Harps on Friday and try and build some momentum between now and the FAI Cup semi-final.”
On the supporters…
“The fans were the key to that win. They really got behind us and gave the players a huge boost. What a venue Oriel Park is. It’s not the best in the country by any stretch of the imagination but when it’s full and people are signing and getting behind the team, it is special. I’m very proud of the players and supporters tonight.”
On Sam Stanton’s goal…
“We know that kind of strike is in Sam. We saw that in Estonia when he hit the bar with a great shot against Levadia Tallinn. He really dug in for the team tonight. He came off his sickbed and he really fought for the team.”
On Patrick Hoban…
“I’ve given Pat a lot of praise this week so I need to be careful! What I will say is that you can clearly see how much he cares about this club and his teammates. He was a real leader as captain for the past few weeks and he was a leader again tonight.
“We haven’t had a chance to rest him but he produced another outstanding performance and the leadership qualities he has shown over the past three or four weeks have been incredible.”
