I'd like to stay at Dundalk - Cassidy

Dundalk midfielder David Cassidy has stated his desire to remain at Oriel Park for a second term. The wee 23-year-old has impressed greatly during his first season with the Lilywhites and is hopeful that he can land a deserved contract renewal when the season comes to a close this weekend. The Board have yet to offer him one, however, Casso says that he would like to complete some unfinished business with the club if they fail to achieve promotion this Saturday night.

“There’s no contract on the table at the moment,” David reveals to dundalkfc.com. “Obviously, the Board have to come to me first, but nobody has approached me. I’ve enjoyed my first season here. It’s a professional set-up. I couldn’t say one bad thing about it. Obviously, I’d like to stay because I like it here and it’s a well run club. There’s no reason I wouldn’t stay.”

Dundalk enter this week’s title showdown knowing that they must defeat bottom-of-the-table Kildare County at Station Road and then pray for a favour from in-form Limerick 37, who visit Tolka Park and current league leaders Shelbourne at the same time. However, while obviously hoping that Limerick can take at least a draw back to Shannonside, Cassidy is focussing solely on overcoming Kildare - though, if results don’t go their way, he disagrees that the season will be deemed a complete failure.

“I wouldn’t say it will be a failure,” Casso states. “A lot of the players in the squad are new or almost new to the club this season, it’s a new team and we’ve gelled together well. Obviously, it will be disappointing if we don’t win the league, but it won’t be a complete failure. You always take the plus points out of a season if you don’t win the league, but, if we don’t, hopefully, we can come back and do it next year.

“I’m looking forward to the game. Everybody’s looking forward to it - it’s the last game of the season. It has been a long season and there has been a lot of ups and downs, but we feel as if we’re going to go out and give it our best shot. It’s obviously out of our hands, but we have to be in the position that if Shels do slip-up that we’re there to take advantage and win the league.

“We can’t control what happens with Shels, so we’re just going to go out and concentrate on our game, try to win, and whatever happens, happens. Obviously, Limerick came to Oriel and beat us, so there’s no reason why they can’t do that against Shels. Kildare certainly won’t be an easy game for us, though. That’s why we need to stop looking at the Shels game and concentrate on our own one.

“We’ve done it before. We’ve had a few good results and then we’ve let ourselves down against the so-called lower teams in the league. We’ve just got to focus. We had a good training session on Tuesday night and we have another one on Thursday, and, hopefully, we can go into Saturday’s game full of confidence. The whole squad are still very positive. Our sole focus is just beating Kildare.”

Cassidy last week added to an impressive season when he was chosen on the PFAI First Division Team of the Year, while he is also one of three players on the shortlist for the individual First Division Player of the Year award. “It’s an extra bonus, but it means nothing if we don’t win the league,” David admits. “There’s no point getting nominated for Player of the Year or winning it, if you don’t win the league.”

The winner of that award will be announced this Sunday (16 November) at the D4 Ballsbridge Court Hotel in Dublin. As part of the sponsorship deal, Ford will provide the winner with the exclusive use of a new Ford Focus for the following year.