Dundalk’s 2021 campaign hit more turbulence on Friday night as the Lilywhites slipped into the relegation playoff spot following a 2-1 defeat in the Louth Derby.

It was Drogheda United’s first win at Oriel Park since June 2012 and speaking to dundalkfc.com, head coach Vinny Perth said it was a costly night, on and off the pitch. Here’s what he had to say.

On the result…
“It’s a really disappointing result and as a club, we have to dig in together now. Over the past 20 years, this club has had many difficult moments and this is another one of them. We just have to take it. “

On the performance…
“We weren’t beaten by a better footballing side, we were beaten by a hungrier side and the players will have to take that on the chin. Drogheda scored two good goals and the second one was full of the sort of pace and power that you’d associate with a good Dundalk team. They were worthy winners but it’s not as if we didn’t throw the kitchen sink at them and a couple of big moments could have gone our way but I can’t defend myself, I can’t defend the players, I can’t defend the recruitment and I can’t defend the club tonight. That’s a difficult position to be in as a coach.”

Daniel Cleary awaits medical attention during the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division match with Drogheda United at Oriel Park. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

On the injury to Dan Cleary…
“Performance-wise, we were fresh in the opening 20 minutes but losing Dan Cleary was a blow and losing Daniel Kelly in the warm-up was another blow. Dan’s injury is different to the one he had previously, he got a bang on it and it was seizing up. Because it was the same leg on which he had the injury, we just couldn’t leave him on the pitch. It threw all of our preparation out the window. We’ve had players going off injured now in the first half of our last two games and it’s bizarre.”

On not being able to find an equaliser…
“We just lacked a bit of something tonight. We lose balance when we don’t have a left-footer playing at full-back and Darragh Leahy is a big loss for us at the moment. Cameron Dummigan was excellent but we just lost that bit of balance on overlaps that creates a bit of space for Michael Duffy and our quality play was just too infrequent.”

On the drop in levels from the Vitesse Arnhem game…
“I don’t know, and I’d be guessing if I could say why there was such a difference in our level of performance from the Vitesse Arnhem game and this evening. I think the scars of being knocked out of Europe have really affected this team, in terms of injuries and confidence. We were operating at a level above where we are at and because we left everything on the line, it means we were always going to take a week or two to get over it but we need to get over it quickly. We’re running out of excuses now.”

Mark Doyle of Drogheda United heads his side’s second goal during the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division match at Oriel Park. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

On the fans reaction…
“I’d imagine the fans are angry tonight and deservedly so. We’re second from the bottom now and we’re there for a reason. I know some of the reasons, I can’t explain some of them, but we are where we deserve to be because we haven’t been good enough over a season. We all know Oriel Park can be a bleak place but having people in the ground helped tonight. I thought that might be a turning point for the players but, ultimately, it wasn’t.”

On the injury situation…
We’ve had some horrendous news regarding injuries. There’s no way that Patrick McEleney will play in the next eight weeks and David McMillan is still waiting on a scan for different reasons.”

On Sami Ben Amar’s debut…
“Sami trained very well all week and we had to throw him in from the start because Daniel Kelly was injured and Han was sick for most of the week. I think he was unfortunate. At times he was excellent but at times it looked like he was thrown in at the deep end, which he probably was.”