Boyle - It felt like a win

Caoimhin Reilly reports from Alkmaar.

Dundalk vice-captain Andy Boyle was extremely honest in offering his post-match thoughts on tonight’s extraordinary 1-1 draw between the Lilywhites and AZ Alkmaar.

Boyle believes that the lateness of Kilduff’s goal makes the draw feel sweeter than it actually should, insisting that it was only a draw rather than the win that they were aiming for.

Boyle told extratime.ie: “Obviously to score a goal like that in the last minute, it feels like a win, but at the end of the day it’s only a point and we cannot get too carried away with ourselves. It’s a good point but at the end of the day, that’s all it is.

“I’m delighted for Ciaran, obviously he’s been through a lot with injuries and it will mean a lot for him to get that goal.

“We always go right to the end and always believe. We knew we’d get the one chance, usually you get the one chance, so it was just about taking it. It was a great delivery from Horgs and a great glancing header from Killer.”

Boyle pursued to say that the Lilywhites are aiming to make progress in the group stages, and having been arguably the better team up until Stephen O’Donnell’s sending off, the defender believes that his side can compete at this level.

“We don’t want to just get to the group stages and just let it peter out. I think that we’re a better side than that, we showed that tonight. I thought that 11 v 11 for 60 or 70 minutes, we were very good. We passed the ball well and created chances.”

Following the dismissal of Dundalk’s captain, the Louth side had to endure lengthy spells of pressure either side of their equaliser, Boyle maintains that that was always going to be the case, especially considering the offensive quality that AZ possessed.

“They’re a good side and they were always going to create chances I suppose. There was a lot of pressure from Alkmaar in the end. I suppose you just have to put your body on the line, be brave and head things and block things and thankfully we all done that.

“Sometimes it (a sending off) can galvanise you and I thought we got ourselves together and defended well. You need to do all that when your down to ten (men).”

Boyle then proceeded to speak about Dundalk’s hectic fixture schedule, the returning of key players from injury and about how Dundalk will try to progress from Group D

“It’s a massive week, I think each week gets bigger as we go along, but we’ll enjoy tonight and then put it to bed, it’s only a point at the end of the day. We’ll look ahead to Rovers on Tuesday and then onto Derry, but we’ll have to focus on Rovers first.

“Killer and Garts coming back is a big help. We’re going to have a lot of games to come and we need them.

“In terms of Europe, getting something out of the first game was something that we targeted and if we could do that we could go into the second and third game at home with something to go after, that’s as far as we’ve looked.”