Patrick McEleney: We need to cut the mistakes out
Credit: Larry McQuillan (ETPhotos)
Having lost their last three Europa League games by the smallest of margins Dundalk midfielder Patrick McEleney was assured in pinpointing where it has been going wrong for the Lilywhites.
Wout Weghorst’s winner at Tallaght Stadium was a poor goal to give away from a defensive viewpoint for Dundalk and conceding avoidable goals is becoming an unfortunate trend for Stephen Kenny’s side in Europe.
McEleney told extratime.ie: “I think that we have given away a few bad goals, it’s not as if teams are cutting us open. It’s mistakes and we need to cut those out.
“We obviously started very slowly and got punished but it was still our mistakes and that makes it very disappointing. You can put it (the defeat) down to many things but it is up to us in the end. We were the ones who got punished. It’s a set-back but we’re still in the tournament.”
Having already beaten Maccabi Tel-Aviv earlier in the campaign, Dundalk know that another victory over the Israelis would put them in with a great chance of progressing to the knock-out rounds, providing Zenit take points off AZ.
“We beat them here so we can take confidence from that but we know that it is still going to be a tough task. In saying that though if you had have given us this situation at the start of the group we would have taken it. In one-off games we usually do well. We’re definitely not out of it and we’ll be going over there to try and win.”
Dundalk’s last competitive game prior to last night was against Cork City on November 6th. Despite the lengthy lay-off, and with AZ having been enduring a tough run of form, McEleney insists that the Lilywhites were only concentrating on getting the three-points from the Dutchmen.
“We felt that they were there for the taking had it not been for that early slip-up. It is what it is but we’re still in it. It’s been a tough time with everybody getting knocks and illnesses at the wrong time but it’s still down to us and we should have started better, that’s what cost us in the end.”
