Benson: To a man we did everything we could

“There is not much that you can say. Stephen (Kenny) summed it up afterwards in that everyone to a man did everything that they could. He’s very proud of us as we all are of each other.

“We have a very tight group here and there wasn’t anything lost for a lack of effort, that’s all that you can look for,” the poignant words of Dundalk goal-scorer Robbie Benson following last night’s agonising 2-1 defeat to Zenit St. Petersburg at Tallaght Stadium.

Benson’s left-footed strike seven minutes after the interval had the home of Shamrock Rovers rocking with the Lilywhites dreaming of another European ambush, this time with the five-times champions of Russia being their victims.

Extratime.ie asked the Westmeath native to describe his third European goal of the season: “It (the ball) broke out to me and I just thought that we didn’t really test the keeper enough in the first-half so I said that I’d just try and get a good strike and thankfully it moved a bit to put him off but probably the keeper should do better, but you take them.”

The two Zenit goals arrived in quick succession, both sucker punches as Dundalk seemed to struggle to contain the Russian’s refined midfield play as the match entered its swansong. Benson believes that, on the night, Zenit got the crucial breaks which allowed them to eventually breach the Lilywhites’ stubborn resistance.

“Obviously we’re all disappointed, but we know that they are going to challenge for the whole competition. They got a couple of breaks which really helped them because they were always going to dominate possession so we can’t fool ourselves in that regard.

“We set up a bit differently than we do in league games but with the amount of games and the way Stephen is, he just concentrates on the next game and it is the most important.

“We had Longford on Monday night and the preparation for tonight only started on Tuesday. We’ll obviously have a better turnaround for the next game (versus Zenit) and hopefully we’ll get a better result out in Russia.”

Elsewhere in Group D, Maccabi Tel-Aviv chalked up their first points of the competition in defeating AZ, 2-1. That victory now places the Israelis in third-place, only a sole point off the Lilywhites heading into the final phase of group matches. Benson is positive though about Dundalk maintaining their buffer over the chasing pair of Maccabi and AZ in securing qualification to the knock-out stages.

“The way the fixtures have fallen is good because we’re closing out with the teams that we’re competing against for second-place so obviously anything that we get out in Zenit will be massive and Stephen, the way he is, he just concentrates on the next game and he won’t be concentrating on Alkmaar or Maccabi until after Zenit.”

The Lilywhites are on the brink of securing their third league title in succession and can wrap the title up on Sunday when they face Bohemians at Oriel Park. Midfielder Benson is determined to do so in a bid to avoid a build-up of anxiety in the camp ahead of another two games in four days next week.

“Absolutely you want to get the league wrapped up as quick as you can because you don’t want to let any doubts creep in if we don’t get it done on Sunday because we have a very tough game going to Pats on Tuesday so hopefully we can get it done on Sunday and get a huge crowd to turn out and give us a lift.”