Kilduff's concern as Dundalk's hard work not translating into goals

Irish Independent

22-04-2025

Twice at the Easter weekend, the 36-year-old saw his side battle hard to make a breakthrough against both Treaty Utd on Good Friday and against Finn Harps on Easter Monday only to see them squander the lead cheaply on both occasions.
That has seen the Lilywhites' lead at the top of the table cut from seven points heading into last weekend to just three points now.
While Dundalk have scored in every game and remain unbeaten, only twice this season have they won a game by more than a single goal, with top scorer Dean Ebbe now having gone over a month since he found the net from the penalty spot in the 2-1 victory over this Saturday's opponents Longford Town on March 21.
Kilduff, who scored 31 goals in 82 appearances for the club in his own playing days, said it was a concern how hard his side were having to work for goals right now given their dominance.
'Massively, it's something that we're aware of,' he said when the goals issue was put to him on Monday.
'We're trying to convert now. We've seen everyone ourselves and we know that we're dominant in possession and we know that we're trying to really impose ourselves and dominate the games and we're doing that to a point but unless you're putting it on the scoreboard then you're not dominating anything.
'You might dominate possession and chances created but we've got to get that killer edge now back into our game. Again, it's Vinnie coming up with a goal – a huge goal in that moment – and you think that might be the one because we were knocking on the door for a long time but it's just a frustrating evening for us.
'We've given away two leads this weekend but this (Finn Harps) is worse because we had Treaty to remember but when you do it again it nearly feels unforgiveable.
'The league is hard. We're in the second round now and teams know what we're trying to do and we know what they're trying to do so there's an element of them setting up to frustrate to then try and nick one and we've allowed the same pattern happen twice now.
'Instead of going for the jugular like we spoke about and really burying the game, we'll never get to coast home. We're not built for it. We're built to go the other way and it's a frustrating thing.'
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Despite seeing his side's lead cut at the top, Kilduff said it was just important to learn the lessons from a bad weekend ahead of this Saturday's trip to Bishopsgate (kick-off 7.30pm) to face a Longford Town side who are the only team who have led against Dundalk this season.
'It was too early even if we won the games to be talking about leads. It's neither here nor there. We're just trying to learn as quickly as we can and in football you've got to because it's never easy.
'Tonight it's that feeling of we were dominant, we were in possession, we got the goal and then we nearly celebrate because we got it but the game is not over. That's the overriding feeling for me. Football gives you nothing and it is summed up in that last 72 hours of football for us.
'Sean (Keogh) didn't mean to make the mistake but he has left it short. It doesn't matter. He has put in a great corner for the goal and he's a huge player for us. Everyone makes mistakes and usually when defenders or goalkeepers make mistakes it costs a goal.
'It was probably just symptomatic of how we approached that last 10 minutes which was similar to Treaty where we needed to keep going and doing what got us ahead. I don't want to call it complacency because we're adamant that is never going to happen here but it's hard to say after doing it twice now that that can't be a term that we've got to consider.
'We're not going to panic or anything like that. We were never entitled to anything this year.
'We had a good start but I said from day dot that all we've had is a good round of games. The second round of games was always going to get harder and there's still the third and fourth round to come. We're learning the hard way and we've got to learn quickly but if we can dust ourselves off now.
'It's probably great that we don't have a full week to wait. We play again in five days and hopefully we can get that out of the system and get the sting in the tail again. We're on a journey here, rebuilding as a club and as a team but we just need to learn from this so it doesn't happen again.'
While his side remain unbeaten, Kilduff said he isn't too concerned about that.
'They feel like losses but at the other side of things we're still unbeaten. No one has turned us over yet but at the same time we know against Treaty twice and again tonight they were ones where three points got away.
'If you look at all the results so far this year, no one is blowing anyone away with cricket scores or anything like that. It's quite the opposite. They're tight games, they're cagey and they're going to come down to fine margins and tonight we learned that if you don't do the basics right then you can drop points on any night.
'Of course it's a huge positive to be still unbeaten. Still no team has managed to beat us yet and we'll take resolve from that but I would have had more points if I had lost tonight and won on Friday so I don't really read too much into that.
'Of course it's a nice little thing to be unbeaten but you might not win the league if you draw all your games. You've got to be winning football matches and you've got to be turning good performances and great opportunities and great phases of play into wins and goals. I'm hoping that it is coming but we've been threatening that it has been coming for a while.
'It's a disappointing one tonight but we'll dust ourselves off and go again,' said Kilduff.