Foster content with performance
Credit:
Ian Foster was content to look for the positives after his Dundalk
side earned a 1-1 draw with Linfield to take the tie 6-4 on aggregate.
A goal in the 11th minute from Ross Gaynor meant that Dundalk could
afford to try to draw their opponents on and this set the style of the
contest from there on in. “Once the goal went in it just changes the
whole outlook of the game, the pressure is on them, it puts them on
the back foot a little bit, we planned then to defend maybe 5 or 10
yards deeper and to see if we could hit them on the break.”
The fact that Dundalk played in a style to draw the opposition onto them meant that they spent long periods of the second half especially without the ball. Ian didn’t find this unduly disconcerting “I thought we defended really, really well I don’t think we played particularly well but it was one of those games we’re going to see more of in the forthcoming season. There are going to be games like that particularly away from home where you are going to have to dig in and man up and match up and win individual battles and I thought we won enough tonight.
Although we were without the ball they didn’t cause us many problems we were just hoping they’d over play, get sloppy and we could hit them on the break again. That was the game plan that was what we were hoping to do and although it didn’t materialise too much in the second half Peter Cherrie didn’t have too much to do. Where they did have possession of the ball it wasn’t in areas that were giving us too many problems.”
Next up are Glentoran, what had the Dundalk management team seen of them “They play slightly differently, I’ve seen them once, actually playing against Linfield, I didn’t pay an awful lot of attention to them because obviously I was focusing on Linfield at the time. I’ll go and see them this week they play tomorrow and they play on Saturday so we’ll take a good look at them in the mean time.”
The hectic start to the season will mean its all hands on deck at Oriel, will they cope “We’ll have a look to see what we are like after the game on Friday and see how the players can cope with the 2 games in 5 days and then if they can play the 3 in 7, without Ross Gaynor for the first leg after his caution tonight, so there will be an enforced change there. Friday night will take an awful lot out of the players because Shamrock Rovers are a wonderful side so we’ll take stock Saturday and Sunday to see how we are and then make a decision on that.”
On a positive note Ian foresees chances for the peripheral players to stake their claim during this busy period “There is decent competition for places, the lads on the bench the likes Keith Ward, Stephen Maher, Nathan Murphy, Stephen McDonnell and Michael Hector are all disappointed not to play and not to start which is great. But you see their reaction when we scored the first goal, they were all on their feet and there’s a decent camaraderie in the team and that’s important because we’ll need all those boys and maybe in the next seven days.”
The fact that Dundalk played in a style to draw the opposition onto them meant that they spent long periods of the second half especially without the ball. Ian didn’t find this unduly disconcerting “I thought we defended really, really well I don’t think we played particularly well but it was one of those games we’re going to see more of in the forthcoming season. There are going to be games like that particularly away from home where you are going to have to dig in and man up and match up and win individual battles and I thought we won enough tonight.
Although we were without the ball they didn’t cause us many problems we were just hoping they’d over play, get sloppy and we could hit them on the break again. That was the game plan that was what we were hoping to do and although it didn’t materialise too much in the second half Peter Cherrie didn’t have too much to do. Where they did have possession of the ball it wasn’t in areas that were giving us too many problems.”
Next up are Glentoran, what had the Dundalk management team seen of them “They play slightly differently, I’ve seen them once, actually playing against Linfield, I didn’t pay an awful lot of attention to them because obviously I was focusing on Linfield at the time. I’ll go and see them this week they play tomorrow and they play on Saturday so we’ll take a good look at them in the mean time.”
The hectic start to the season will mean its all hands on deck at Oriel, will they cope “We’ll have a look to see what we are like after the game on Friday and see how the players can cope with the 2 games in 5 days and then if they can play the 3 in 7, without Ross Gaynor for the first leg after his caution tonight, so there will be an enforced change there. Friday night will take an awful lot out of the players because Shamrock Rovers are a wonderful side so we’ll take stock Saturday and Sunday to see how we are and then make a decision on that.”
On a positive note Ian foresees chances for the peripheral players to stake their claim during this busy period “There is decent competition for places, the lads on the bench the likes Keith Ward, Stephen Maher, Nathan Murphy, Stephen McDonnell and Michael Hector are all disappointed not to play and not to start which is great. But you see their reaction when we scored the first goal, they were all on their feet and there’s a decent camaraderie in the team and that’s important because we’ll need all those boys and maybe in the next seven days.”
