Stephen O’Donnell has no concerns over Dundalk’s away form ahead of his side’s return to Head in the Game Park on Friday – the venue where they suffered one of their two defeats back in March.
hile the Lilywhites are unbeaten at home this season – winning nine of their 11 games at Oriel Park to date – they have won just twice on the road so far this term.
Asked about this ahead of this weekend’s Louth Derby clash with Drogheda United, O’Donnell replied: “But they're two of our last three away games.
“Could it be better? Of course it could, we could win every game in the league, but we've lost two in 21. Would you have taken that at the start of the season?
“The players are doing brilliant and they're trying their best. This is a group that in pre-season had been, not cobbled together, but put together and they've done great.
“You’d love to win every game but that's not football. We've had a lot more ups than we've had downs this season. They're giving everything. They're emptying the tank every day in training and every week in matches and that's all you can ask for.”
While Dundalk’s defeat to Drogheda at Head in the Game Park, courtesy of a dubious Dean Williams penalty early in the second half, still stings, O’Donnell says that result is a reminder of why his side cannot afford to take the Boynesiders for granted this weekend.
“We were beaten there earlier in the season. That's one of our two defeats so I don't need to tell the players anything different,” he said.
“We've been there once and we got turned over but nothing changes week on week. We treat everyone the same. We train well and we turn up and we try our best. It's that simple and that's what our lads do and that's all that anyone can ask of them.”
Friday’s match is one of two games Dundalk have in-hand over league leaders Shamrock Rovers and fourth placed St Patrick’s Athletic – who they meet the following week. That gives this derby tie an extra edge for the visitors.
“Obviously you want to take advantage,” said O’Donnell.
“There's no point in having games in-hand if you don't take advantage. With the European teams not playing, it's a chance for us, but it's going to be a tough game.”
The head coach is hopeful of having some players back at his disposal for the trip down the M1 having only been able to name six out of nine substitutes for last weekend’s 3-0 win over UCD – something that wasn’t helped by Steven Bradley’s withdrawal before kick-off having felt a twinge in the warm-up.
“It's obviously not ideal when you have to change it around right before kick-off but it happens in football. Joe Adams came in and done really well,” said O’Donnell.
“John Mountney wasn't here tonight, Pat Hoban is out, Brian Gartland has been out and Mayowa (Animasahun) fractured his hand so he was out. We were down a few bodies but we have good quality and we adapted well and the lads who played did very well. A few should be back for next week.”
O’Donnell also said he was hopeful of having top-scorer Patrick Hoban back a lot sooner than the worst case, six-week scenario.
“Pat has a little strain on his quad. Hopefully we can get him back training. He tweaked it against Shamrock Rovers in the first five or 10 minutes. It was testament to him that he ploughed on for 80-odd minutes and had a massive part to play in the winner. They're the type of men we want,” he said.
