Vinny Perth: 'I said the people who owned club were good people and that made a headline'

Vinny Perth

Vinny Perth Credit: Michael P Ryan (ETPhotos)

David Wilson reports from Louth

Shortly after Dundalk secured what could be a crucial three points away to Drogheda United on Thursday night, attention swiftly turned to Dundalk’s last two games.

“We set a target of 12 points amongst ourselves in our own little bubble and I said if we got 12 points, I felt that we would end up close to fourth,” said Dundalk manager Vinny Perth.

Next, for the Lilywhites is a home game on Sunday against the already relegated Longford Town who parted company with manager Daire Doyle during the week. 

“It’s just another game for us. Our home form has been excellent, the support has been brilliant,” said Perth. 

Inconsistency has dogged this Dundalk side at times this year but now the Oriel Park side have won their last two since being defeated twice by St. Patricks Athletic in both the cup and the league. 

“If we were trying to win a league at the moment and that was the starting XI, I would be happy with that whether I was assistant manager or the manager.

“I would be happy with that team going out to win a league title. I think they’re good enough but obviously it’s frustrating for everyone in the club to be in the position that we’re in,” said Perth. 

“Our players are good enough, that squad is good enough to be minimum top two in this league and that’s where they should be.”

The club continue to operate under a cloud of uncertainty as the American owners look to sell the club, a locally backed consortium has been mooted but there has not been a deal done yet. Perth criticised the lack of transparency in the upper echelons of the club.



“We need to give information out; I’ve given out information in good faith,” said Perth. However, Perth paid credit to the club’s American owners when the pandemic hit.

“I said the people who owned club were good people and that made a headline, but it wasn’t explained to them what context that was meant in. 

“The first thing Peak 6 did when covid hit in a really difficult time in the world was contact me and say ‘have a meeting with everybody, let them know that there is absolutely no doubt that no matter how long this goes on for that everybody will be paid, tell all their families not to worry etc’ and that’s good people. Have they made mistakes? Of course, they have.

“I’m not the spokesperson. I’ve given up on that because things have changed. You need to be careful the way the modern media works now people repeat what I say on podcasts and may take this as a smartass answer but has anyone contacted the club and asked them the question?

“I’m not expecting you to answer that. I’m just saying in fairness, you might say in the podcast I’m being smart about that but has anyone… I don’t know. I’m not picking anyone out I’m trying to be general here. It’s a general discussion.”

It has been difficult to shield the playing group from the mess that is behind the scenes at Dundalk, but Perth has tried.



“I’m not going to get into all of that stuff. I’m coaching the team. I’m a football coach. I am a businessperson, but not at the moment in this role. I just coach the football team.

“I’m the coach on the training ground and get the very best out of players when I can. I don’t always do it but that’s the world I am living in at the minute. I’m not answering any more of that,” said Perth as he continued to be questioned about the hierarchy of the club.

“It’s not annoying, it’s part of life. I can’t change things all I can do is focus on the team. We’ve done brilliantly this year as a team at times.

“We live in a world where when Patrick McEleney scores a wonderful goal, social media went bananas over it because we were letting him go. In ’16 when Daryl Horgan scored a wonderful goal in Zenit St. Petersburg, his deal was already done to Preston and social media didn’t go mad. Now it’s very difficult to work, to operate in but that’s the reality of where we’re at.”

Perth has revealed that he left social media, but it still informed about what’s said online.

“I still get sent screenshots and told about what people say. It’s very difficult.”

“My own sister; I’ve actually blocked on her my phone. She sends it to my wife and my wife says, ‘did you see that?’ No,’ Jesus, it causes rows, and you try and stay away from it. But I’m only a minor sportsperson, but I think you’re starting to see a real discussion about what’s going around online.”

There is still a togetherness in the group according to Perth and he remarked on how good training had been in the lead up to the derby.

“The last 20 minutes of training were probably the most enjoyable in eight years. We played a little game that we played over the years, we had people celebrating like they had won the World Cup because there was a bottle of shampoo at stake. I was giving out that we didn’t record it to show people that this is what the club is about.”

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