Ross Gaynor looks for six points
Credit:
Dundalk FC winger Ross Gaynor has targeted a “massive” six points from their next two league games, while he is also “confident” that they can gain revenge for last year’s League Cup semi-final loss, as they face into three games over the next week. The Lilywhites take on Drogheda United and Bray Wanderers in the league with a cup match against Monaghan United sandwiched in between, and the 23-year-old is aiming for a winning streak before Shamrock Rovers come to town on the May Bank Holiday.
Gaynor returns to his former stomping ground when Dundalk make the short trip to United Park on Friday night. “When I’ve played against them (there), we’ve always looked comfortable,” Ross, who scored in both 3-1 wins at the venue last season, told dundalkfc.com. “It’s a great game to be involved in. It’s completely different to our last two games, I think. We have to go out and score the goals; it’s not like we can go out and counter against Drogheda. The way that we’re playing, hopefully we can just keep it going, and hopefully we can get the three points. The Gaffer said that six points in the next two games is massive. We have to get six points. I think if you take out the away form we have been playing brilliant this year. If we get six points we’d have 14 after the first series of games, and I think that’s good enough. And we’re in a cup final as well.”
The Louth club are quickly back in action when they travel the opposite direction to take on Monaghan in the League Cup second round on Easter Monday afternoon (kick-off 3pm), hoping to put the ghost of last year’s loss in the last four behind them. “Every cup is a priority,” Gaynor said. “It is nine years since the club last won a cup, so every cup is going to be major. If we’re not going to win the league, we at least have to get to a couple of finals. I think we have the team to win the league and to get to finals. Hopefully, we can keep fit and just keep going. It’s not nice playing up there; it’s a difficult ground. It’s going to be a tough game, especially after they knocked us out of the semi-final.”
Dundalk’s last league outing saw them earn a well deserved draw with Sligo Rovers last Friday, and Gaynor admits that he was content to bag a point against the Bit O’ Red. “I thought we worked very hard and I think we got what we deserved out of the game,” the Ardee native said. “It was one of those games; we worked very hard, they played very well to be fair and we tried to counter them. I think we were happy with a point; most teams would take a point against Sligo. It was good to get the draw. It was a very fair result. We had our chances, they had their chances. It was kind of 50/50 for the whole game. The main thing was we worked hard, we closed down well and we didn’t give them that many opportunities, which obviously we had been working on in training. It’s good that what we do in training shows on the pitch.”
Dundalk are the only team that still boast an unbeaten home record in the Premier Division, but next week go into a difficult double header against Bray and Shamrock Rovers. Gaynor, however, is confident that the side could go undefeated at Oriel Park throughout the season. “The whole season,” Ross said when asked how long he thinks they can keep their unbeaten record at the border venue intact. “On our day, I don’t think anyone will beat us at this ground. Hopefully, touch wood, that sticks out until the end of the season. We’ll just keep going. We have got a few tough games here, including Rovers, so it will be a good challenge. We’ll just see what happens.” The draw with Sligo was followed by a 2-1 win, and 5-3 aggregate victory, over Cliftonville in the Setanta Sports Cup on Monday night. Cliftonville reduced the deficit to 3-2 with Kieran O’Connor’s header just before the hour mark.
But Gaynor insists that he was not worried when the Northerners pulled one back. “No, the same happened against Glentoran; it takes something big for us to react,” the former Millwall youngster said, “and to know that we’re in a match. I think we just thought we were very comfortable before that. They didn’t really create a lot. Once they scored, we said we’d better grind out a goal at least. We got the goal and then we could have had three or four. I think we all had eyes on the final. None of us were trying to go into challenges because a good few of us were on yellow cards. We were just trying to get through the match as close to 0-0 as possible.”
Dundalk were cruising through to the final but Johnny Breen’s goal gave them their first home victory in the competition and added an extra €1,000 to their prize fund, with Gaynor – who had scored in the home draws against Linfield and Glentoran – delighted to win on the night. “It was very good to win it,” he said. “We have beaten all the teams from up the north. I don’t think anyone else would give us a game. I think to get as many wins against the Northern teams as we did was very good for the team and the fans. We saw the atmosphere on Monday; it was very good. Hopefully, we can be in the competition again, and hopefully we can win it this year. Hopefully, we get a good crowd and it will be a great experience. It’s my first final, so it will be just great to play in it.”
Gaynor, having already served a suspension in this season’s competition, entered Monday’s game on a yellow card knowing that another caution would rule him out of the 14 May decider. “I was thinking about it all week,” he admitted. “If you go out there thinking you’re going to get a yellow card you probably will get a yellow card. But I have to say that’s probably the best ref that we’ve had at Oriel that I’ve ever seen. I thought he was very good. He only booked two of their players and didn’t book any of our players. I didn’t think it was a ‘grudgy’ match. I thought both teams played good football and it was a nice match to be involved in.”
Gaynor returns to his former stomping ground when Dundalk make the short trip to United Park on Friday night. “When I’ve played against them (there), we’ve always looked comfortable,” Ross, who scored in both 3-1 wins at the venue last season, told dundalkfc.com. “It’s a great game to be involved in. It’s completely different to our last two games, I think. We have to go out and score the goals; it’s not like we can go out and counter against Drogheda. The way that we’re playing, hopefully we can just keep it going, and hopefully we can get the three points. The Gaffer said that six points in the next two games is massive. We have to get six points. I think if you take out the away form we have been playing brilliant this year. If we get six points we’d have 14 after the first series of games, and I think that’s good enough. And we’re in a cup final as well.”
The Louth club are quickly back in action when they travel the opposite direction to take on Monaghan in the League Cup second round on Easter Monday afternoon (kick-off 3pm), hoping to put the ghost of last year’s loss in the last four behind them. “Every cup is a priority,” Gaynor said. “It is nine years since the club last won a cup, so every cup is going to be major. If we’re not going to win the league, we at least have to get to a couple of finals. I think we have the team to win the league and to get to finals. Hopefully, we can keep fit and just keep going. It’s not nice playing up there; it’s a difficult ground. It’s going to be a tough game, especially after they knocked us out of the semi-final.”
Dundalk’s last league outing saw them earn a well deserved draw with Sligo Rovers last Friday, and Gaynor admits that he was content to bag a point against the Bit O’ Red. “I thought we worked very hard and I think we got what we deserved out of the game,” the Ardee native said. “It was one of those games; we worked very hard, they played very well to be fair and we tried to counter them. I think we were happy with a point; most teams would take a point against Sligo. It was good to get the draw. It was a very fair result. We had our chances, they had their chances. It was kind of 50/50 for the whole game. The main thing was we worked hard, we closed down well and we didn’t give them that many opportunities, which obviously we had been working on in training. It’s good that what we do in training shows on the pitch.”
Dundalk are the only team that still boast an unbeaten home record in the Premier Division, but next week go into a difficult double header against Bray and Shamrock Rovers. Gaynor, however, is confident that the side could go undefeated at Oriel Park throughout the season. “The whole season,” Ross said when asked how long he thinks they can keep their unbeaten record at the border venue intact. “On our day, I don’t think anyone will beat us at this ground. Hopefully, touch wood, that sticks out until the end of the season. We’ll just keep going. We have got a few tough games here, including Rovers, so it will be a good challenge. We’ll just see what happens.” The draw with Sligo was followed by a 2-1 win, and 5-3 aggregate victory, over Cliftonville in the Setanta Sports Cup on Monday night. Cliftonville reduced the deficit to 3-2 with Kieran O’Connor’s header just before the hour mark.
But Gaynor insists that he was not worried when the Northerners pulled one back. “No, the same happened against Glentoran; it takes something big for us to react,” the former Millwall youngster said, “and to know that we’re in a match. I think we just thought we were very comfortable before that. They didn’t really create a lot. Once they scored, we said we’d better grind out a goal at least. We got the goal and then we could have had three or four. I think we all had eyes on the final. None of us were trying to go into challenges because a good few of us were on yellow cards. We were just trying to get through the match as close to 0-0 as possible.”
Dundalk were cruising through to the final but Johnny Breen’s goal gave them their first home victory in the competition and added an extra €1,000 to their prize fund, with Gaynor – who had scored in the home draws against Linfield and Glentoran – delighted to win on the night. “It was very good to win it,” he said. “We have beaten all the teams from up the north. I don’t think anyone else would give us a game. I think to get as many wins against the Northern teams as we did was very good for the team and the fans. We saw the atmosphere on Monday; it was very good. Hopefully, we can be in the competition again, and hopefully we can win it this year. Hopefully, we get a good crowd and it will be a great experience. It’s my first final, so it will be just great to play in it.”
Gaynor, having already served a suspension in this season’s competition, entered Monday’s game on a yellow card knowing that another caution would rule him out of the 14 May decider. “I was thinking about it all week,” he admitted. “If you go out there thinking you’re going to get a yellow card you probably will get a yellow card. But I have to say that’s probably the best ref that we’ve had at Oriel that I’ve ever seen. I thought he was very good. He only booked two of their players and didn’t book any of our players. I didn’t think it was a ‘grudgy’ match. I thought both teams played good football and it was a nice match to be involved in.”
