Quigley settling in well at Oriel

Dundalk’s new signing Mark Quigley has settled into life well at Oriel Park as the 25 year-old finishes his second week of pre-season training.

The former St Pat’s, Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians attacker was signed by Ian Foster during the off-season, with Jason Byrne and Keith Ward also joining up with the Louth side. It means the Lilywhites will be an attacking force to be reckoned with this year, though Quigley also believes there are a lot of promising young players coming through the ranks at the club too.

“It has been very good,” Quigley says of his first impressions at Oriel Park. “There are a lot of good, young players here. I think the future for Dundalk is bright with the young players that we have. There are really good, young players here who I have been impressed with. We probably need a little bit more experience in, but everyone has trained well and the last couple of weeks have gone very well. The training has been tough enough so far. Pre-seasons are always tough, though; I didn’t expect anything less. I’ve enjoyed it so far, so hopefully the rest of the season will go as well as the first two weeks have gone.”

Of the young players, Daniel Kearns is one that has caught the eye of many and Quigley has vowed to give the youngster some guidance. “I think he’s a very good player,” Mark said. “I’ll pull him under my wing a little bit and try to guide him a little bit. A lot of the young lads are good. The manager knows himself that he needs a couple of defenders, but attacking wise we look good.” This week’s Leinster Senior Cup (LSC) draw paired Dundalk with another of Quigley’s ex-clubs, Shamrock Rovers, and he is looking forward to the tie. “I suppose you have to beat the best teams if you want to do well in cup competitions,” he said.

Dundalk face the Premier Division winners away from home on the opening day of the league on March 4th too, a tie which manager Ian Foster believes is the toughest around. Still, getting a difficult assignment like a trip to Tallaght out of the way early on can’t be a bad thing either.

“Maybe beating them would give us a little psychological edge,” he said, “but they’re the champions so they’ll be coming into it with a lot of confidence. They’ve signed a few decent players and so have we. Obviously, if we beat them, they’ll be thinking about it.

“But I think, win or lose, we’ll be going into the first game of the season confident that we can beat them on their own patch,” he added. “I wouldn’t go there with fear. As I said, young lads don’t tend to have fear. I’ll be confident enough going there.” Dundalk’s first match comes next Friday, 28 January, when they tackle local rivals Drogheda United for the annual Jim Malone Cup. “It will be nice to get a game,” Mark admitted. “I think the match fitness is different to the fitness you get from training. Our fitness levels are looking good, and I’m feeling good myself this last two weeks. I feel I have been getting fitter every day. But it’s different in a game; you notice in your first game back that you tend to be blowing a little bit. Once we get over the first game and then get a couple more games into us before our first competitive game then I think we’ll be looking good.

“That’s probably what you need,” he said. “I don’t think there are too many friendlies anymore anyway. I think most games are competitive enough. Everybody wants to beat everybody to get some bragging rights. It will be a tough game. Hopefully, the supporters come out and we can get the win.”