Stephen O’Donnell hailed his young guns after Dundalk picked up their second win of the Bank Holiday weekend against UCD on Monday.
Goals from John Martin and Ryan O’Kane, the latter’s an absolute screamer, lifted the Lilywhites into fourth place in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division table.
An injury to Robbie Benson was the only downside of the game and speaking to dundalkfc.com on Tuesday morning, O’Donnell said he was happy with how his side, who had an average age of just 22-and-a-half, performed against the Students.
You can read his quotes below.
On Ryan O’Kane…
“I thought he was excellent throughout. He went close with a very similar effort into the opposite corner in the first half where their goalkeeper made a great save and he was very threatening throughout. He looked really fresh and sharp and capped it off in injury time when the game was on a little bit of a knife edge to seal the points with such a strike. I thought he deserved that ending to a really good performance. Looking at him at the start of the season, I think he had lost that little bit of freshness so just taking him out of the team for a little bit has freshened him back up and he’s looking really sharp again with two goals in two games.”
On the age profile of his team…
“It was a very young team, with Darragh Leahy being the oldest player at 25. People will say we were playing UCD who are young players themselves, but, our average age was 22 so it was really encouraging from that point of view. There’s really good scope with so many of them.”
Wasiri Williams, John Martin, Archie Davies and Connor Malley. Photo by Gerry Scully
On John Martin…
“Football can flip. On Friday night, John was probably thinking, ‘When will I get my name on the score sheet?’ as he didn’t start against Drogheda but he came on and scored the winner. That was a great feeling and then he backed it up again. He’s had a brilliant few days but he deserves it in regards to the way he trains and the way he goes about things.”
On the clean sheet…
“We probably shipped a few too many goals recently. It doesn’t help when you’re chopping and changing a back line and nearly the whole team, week in, week out so it was good to get a bit of continuity. Nathan Shepperd looked very assured in goal and the back four of Archie Davies, Darragh Leahy, Wasiri Williams and Hayden Muller will be delighted and I thought they defended very well in the main.”
On Robbie Benson’s injury…
“We obviously hope it’s not too serious. He felt his hamstring so we’ll get him scanned and see where we are with it. I’m obviously very disappointed for Robbie and us, but hopefully, it can be a sharp enough turnaround because he’s such a massive influence on the team and the squad.”
On the trip to Sligo on Saturday…
“Sligo were very unlucky against Shamrock Rovers last Friday. They played very well and they recovered to beat St Patrick’s Athletic on Monday afternoon. They’ll be full of confidence but we’ll be looking forward to it and it’s a game between two good teams. I think there’s only a goal separating us in the table and we have the same amount of points after making similar starts to the season but it’s one we are looking forward to.”
