More to Come - Whelehan

Dundalk central defender Ben Whelehan insists that there is much more to come from the league leaders, despite the Lilywhites enjoying an almost flawless run of form during July. From six outings last month, Dundalk netted fives win and a draw, scored ten goals and conceded just once. Five clean-sheets in six and four in a row, Whelehan and his backline has contributed largely to the Oriel outfit opening up a four-point lead at the top of the table.

However, according to the towering centre-half, John Gill’s troops have yet to hit full throttle. “We’re doing okay, but we haven’t been playing to the best of our ability I wouldn’t think,” Whelehan told dundalkfc.com, “so we have to address that, because we haven’t been playing great.

“But we’re getting results, and that is what has to happen at times during the season. We’re not going to play brilliantly all through the campaign, so we’re doing well at the minute digging results out. We haven’t been giving goals away, which is an important thing. We’re all playing well together at the back and we’re all covering each other, so it’s going pretty well.”

The 29-year-old has previously won promotion - with Dublin City three years ago - and he is convinced that this Dundalk squad is good enough to go on and secure the league title. “At this moment, I’m very confident about winning it,” he admitted, “but we’ve got to be on our game right to the end. It’s going to go all the way to the wire, but once we put our minds to it and have the right attitude, I don’t see why we won’t be there.

“It’s a very nice position to be in, to be in the third round of games and sitting pretty at the top. But, it counts for nothing unless you’re there at the end of the season, so we’ve just got to keep working at it and hope that we stay there. There’s no extra pressure whatsoever when you’re at the top. You’re there on merit, you’re not there by mistake. We’re a good team with good players, so we’re there for a reason.”

The final furlong is fast approaching for the four teams still in with a chance of lifting the league trophy in November. However, having been down this road before, Ben knows exactly what lies ahead as he brushed aside any talk of extra pressure now creeping in. “I don’t find it nervy at all,” he admitted. “Maybe a couple of the young lads would get a few jitters, but it’s up to the experienced players and the management team to get behind them and let them know that there’s no need to have nerves or anything like that. It’s just a game of football, go out and play to the best of your ability and the result will take care of itself.”

Dundalk ended last month in terrific form with three straight wins in the space of just seven days. And, Ben admits that it was a difficult schedule for the whole panel. “It was very tough,” he said. “Even for a full-time outfit, it would have been very tough. For a part-time team to play three games in a week and to train on top of that, and to do your own work and to try to recover and get everything right, it’s very, very difficult. But the league expects you to do that, so you have to do it, and if you have any aspirations of being champions, you have to do it.”

Their own fine results, combined with slip-ups from other title challengers in the same period, has led to the Lilywhites opening up a four-point cushion at the summit. However, while looking at other scores in the division, Whelehan says that he is not concerned about them at this point. “I suppose you have one little eye on it, but we don’t really care about other results,” Ben stated.

“I’ve said before that we’re going to lose another game before the end of the season and we’re going to draw games. Other teams are going to do the exact same thing, so all we have to do is just concentrate on our own business and not worry about any of the other teams.”

Such has been the battle for top spot lately, Ben is only now recovering from a broken nose which he sustained at home to Monaghan United a fortnight ago. “I broke it in the first-half against Monaghan,” he revealed. “With the amount of blood and the fact that it was over the side of my face, I knew that it was broken straight away. I would have stayed on the whole game, but it just wouldn’t stop bleeding. The ref wouldn’t let me play on, but it was fine then. I played against Longford and then against Wexford and it was grand, but I needed to get it fixed, so I did last Friday morning in James’ hospital. I got it reset and back in place, so it’s okay now.”

Dundalk have been busy this week preparing for another crucial league fixture, as they make the trip to promotion rivals Sporting Fingal on Friday evening. Fingal have been the most impressive opponents that the Lilywhites have faced this season. However, Whelehan certainly won’t be settling for a point from the match. “I would never take a point, you always go to win a game,” he insisted. “But it depends on how the game pans out. If they’re a better team than us on the night, of course you’d settle for a point, but before you go down there, no way. We’re going there to win the game, first and foremost.

“Fingal have been very good the twice that we’ve played them. They have some good players and they’ve added to it now in the window with a few experienced pros as well, so they’re going to be a team to look out for all the way. But if we play the way we can, we should have no problems. We can open up a bigger gap on them, but they’ll be looking at pulling us back as well. We’ve just got to prepare properly, go out and perform, and hope that we get a result.”