Foster asks fans to be patient
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FANS HAVE TO 'BE PATIENT' - FOSTER
Dundalk FC manager Ian Foster has asked supporters to “be patient” when the Lilywhites get their home league campaign underway against his former club Galway United at Oriel Park on Friday night, the Liverpool-born boss insisting that there are “no certainties” in football.
Dundalk are 1/3 to follow up Monday night’s Setanta Sports Cup win over Glentoran with another victory this weekend, but Foster stated bookmakers’ odds mean “nothing” to him, while he is also wary that his players face a “different pressure” when they tackle Galway, who lost their opening game 3-0 at home to Saint Patrick’s Athletic.
Winning aim
“I’ve said in my programme notes; it’s five months to the day since our last home league fixture, which is an awful long time,” Foster told dundalkfc.com following Thursday morning’s training session. “It’s one game that we’ve been really looking forward to. It’s nice to get back to the league at home and hopefully we can get off to a good start. I haven’t seen Galway myself. I was unable to do that but I have had reports done in a couple of games that they’ve played; one pre-season game and the fixture against St. Pat’s. We’ve got a couple of match reports on them.”
Commenting on the short odds which Dundalk have been made to win, Foster insisted: “That means nothing to me; I don’t look at things like that. No game in this division is easy and I’m sure this game will prove that as well. I’ll take a 1-0 win in the last minute, if that’s what it takes. We’re after three points, we’re after a decent home record and hopefully we can start our winning ways.
‘Different pressure’
“But we have to be patient and our fans have to be patient,” Ian added. “Manchester United lost their unbeaten record to Wolves, who were bottom of the table at the time. Football is loved by so many people because it’s not a certainty like everyone thinks it is.” For Foster, this season is new territory as for the first time he has not started the season with a win.
And the 34-year-old knows it is vital to get a victory on the board as early as possible. “I think it’s very important,” he said. “It’s a different type of pressure for the players because I don’t think they’ve been fancied in any of the other games that we’ve had this season – the Linfield tie, the Glentoran tie and the first game in the league against Rovers. I don’t think anyone particularly gave us a chance. It’s a different type of pressure on the players now; they’re expected to win a game, and we’ll see if they can handle that pressure.”
Maximum points
Asked if that pressure is more difficult to deal with than facing the likes of Linfield, Glentoran or Rovers, Foster said: “I think it is, yeah, probably. The players have to be able to handle it, though. They’re good players, a lot of them have been in this situation before so they’ll be used to it. But as a group we have to start the game brightly and regardless of who the opposition is we have to go to win the game.”
Dundalk face back-to-back home games in the league, with Bohemians set to visit Oriel Park next week, and Foster is aiming for maximum points. “I’d love six points,” he said. “I don’t think we picked up as many points last year as we probably should have and ought to. We need to address that this season and hopefully we can start by doing that with good performances and good results against Galway United and Bohemians.”
For the game, Dundalk will be without suspended No1 goalkeeper Peter Cherrie, who serves a ban following last weekend’s opening-night defeat by Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium. Paul Murphy will again deputise and make his first competitive appearance for Dundalk at Oriel Park since November 2004.
Seven-year wait
Galway have not won at Oriel Park since April 2004 when late goals from Dave Goldbey and John Russell secured a 3-1 victory for the visitors after Paul Marney and Colin Fortune had exchanged goals in a sixty-second spell before the midway point of the second half. The sides’ first league encounter at Oriel Park was on 6 November 1977, when Jimmy Redfern scored twice in a 2-0 victory.
Since that time they have met in Oriel on 27 occasions (21 seasons) in the top flight and Dundalk have lost just once. That came in the last league game of the 1986/87 season, the Lilywhites having already secured second place and guaranteed European action for the following season, while they were due to meet Bohemians a week later in the semi-final of the FAI Cup.
Dundalk dominant For the Galway game, manager Turlough O’Connor played a mainly reserve team that included only three members of that year’s cup final lineup against Shamrock Rovers. Alan O’Toole and Tom McNulty were the Dundalk scorers in the 3-2 defeat by the Tribesmen. The sides have also met at Oriel in the First Division, where Galway have had a bit more success, winning three and losing three in eight outings. Dundalk’s best unbeaten sequence against Galway ran to 15 games and covered a six-year period from November 1989 to November 1995.
In the last 14 meetings, Galway have won just once, while it is nearly six years since they recorded their last victory on the road against Dundalk, that coming in June 2005 when they won 3-0 in Gortakeegan, Monaghan. Last season, in four league meetings, Dundalk recorded two wins and two draws, the final encounter, in October, seeing Foster’s side record a 3-0 win at Oriel Park thanks to a first ever senior hat-trick by Fahrudin Kuduzovic.
Dundalk are 1/3 to follow up Monday night’s Setanta Sports Cup win over Glentoran with another victory this weekend, but Foster stated bookmakers’ odds mean “nothing” to him, while he is also wary that his players face a “different pressure” when they tackle Galway, who lost their opening game 3-0 at home to Saint Patrick’s Athletic.
Winning aim
“I’ve said in my programme notes; it’s five months to the day since our last home league fixture, which is an awful long time,” Foster told dundalkfc.com following Thursday morning’s training session. “It’s one game that we’ve been really looking forward to. It’s nice to get back to the league at home and hopefully we can get off to a good start. I haven’t seen Galway myself. I was unable to do that but I have had reports done in a couple of games that they’ve played; one pre-season game and the fixture against St. Pat’s. We’ve got a couple of match reports on them.”
Commenting on the short odds which Dundalk have been made to win, Foster insisted: “That means nothing to me; I don’t look at things like that. No game in this division is easy and I’m sure this game will prove that as well. I’ll take a 1-0 win in the last minute, if that’s what it takes. We’re after three points, we’re after a decent home record and hopefully we can start our winning ways.
‘Different pressure’
“But we have to be patient and our fans have to be patient,” Ian added. “Manchester United lost their unbeaten record to Wolves, who were bottom of the table at the time. Football is loved by so many people because it’s not a certainty like everyone thinks it is.” For Foster, this season is new territory as for the first time he has not started the season with a win.
And the 34-year-old knows it is vital to get a victory on the board as early as possible. “I think it’s very important,” he said. “It’s a different type of pressure for the players because I don’t think they’ve been fancied in any of the other games that we’ve had this season – the Linfield tie, the Glentoran tie and the first game in the league against Rovers. I don’t think anyone particularly gave us a chance. It’s a different type of pressure on the players now; they’re expected to win a game, and we’ll see if they can handle that pressure.”
Maximum points
Asked if that pressure is more difficult to deal with than facing the likes of Linfield, Glentoran or Rovers, Foster said: “I think it is, yeah, probably. The players have to be able to handle it, though. They’re good players, a lot of them have been in this situation before so they’ll be used to it. But as a group we have to start the game brightly and regardless of who the opposition is we have to go to win the game.”
Dundalk face back-to-back home games in the league, with Bohemians set to visit Oriel Park next week, and Foster is aiming for maximum points. “I’d love six points,” he said. “I don’t think we picked up as many points last year as we probably should have and ought to. We need to address that this season and hopefully we can start by doing that with good performances and good results against Galway United and Bohemians.”
For the game, Dundalk will be without suspended No1 goalkeeper Peter Cherrie, who serves a ban following last weekend’s opening-night defeat by Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium. Paul Murphy will again deputise and make his first competitive appearance for Dundalk at Oriel Park since November 2004.
Seven-year wait
Galway have not won at Oriel Park since April 2004 when late goals from Dave Goldbey and John Russell secured a 3-1 victory for the visitors after Paul Marney and Colin Fortune had exchanged goals in a sixty-second spell before the midway point of the second half. The sides’ first league encounter at Oriel Park was on 6 November 1977, when Jimmy Redfern scored twice in a 2-0 victory.
Since that time they have met in Oriel on 27 occasions (21 seasons) in the top flight and Dundalk have lost just once. That came in the last league game of the 1986/87 season, the Lilywhites having already secured second place and guaranteed European action for the following season, while they were due to meet Bohemians a week later in the semi-final of the FAI Cup.
Dundalk dominant For the Galway game, manager Turlough O’Connor played a mainly reserve team that included only three members of that year’s cup final lineup against Shamrock Rovers. Alan O’Toole and Tom McNulty were the Dundalk scorers in the 3-2 defeat by the Tribesmen. The sides have also met at Oriel in the First Division, where Galway have had a bit more success, winning three and losing three in eight outings. Dundalk’s best unbeaten sequence against Galway ran to 15 games and covered a six-year period from November 1989 to November 1995.
In the last 14 meetings, Galway have won just once, while it is nearly six years since they recorded their last victory on the road against Dundalk, that coming in June 2005 when they won 3-0 in Gortakeegan, Monaghan. Last season, in four league meetings, Dundalk recorded two wins and two draws, the final encounter, in October, seeing Foster’s side record a 3-0 win at Oriel Park thanks to a first ever senior hat-trick by Fahrudin Kuduzovic.
