Kierans disappointed with performance

Dundalk were narrowly beaten by St. Patrick's Athletic on Monday evening. Despite having the better of the chances in the game, the Lilywhites were poor throughout. Speaking to extratime.ie, interim manager Darius Kierans agreed and thought his side were disappointing.

"Very disappointing. I thought we were very flat. Gave away a soft goal and gave away possession far too cheaply. I don't think Pat's played as well as they can on the night and there was an opportunity to take some points from the match but we were disappointing all over. Take out Derek Foran and everyone else were poor."

The Louth club did have chances, most notably from Gary Shanahan who had a chance in either half, but failed to take them and Kierans rues the missed opportunities but conceded the home side were overrun in midfield.

"We had the best three chances of the game. They were playing across their back four and they weren't hurting us but when the ball come into the middle third, I thought we hadn't got enough urgency. Their three in there dominated our three. I thought Conor McDonald, only 17 and has played a lot of games in the last week as well, did very well

but he tired in the end. Other than that I thought our midfield weren't good enough."

Dundalk have had a transfer embargo enforced on them by the FAI due to fees owed, in recent weeks preventing them from signing players on professional deals, Stephen Maher for example, however with the takeover finally being completed at the weekend, the new owners have paid the outstanding money meaning the transfer embargo has been

lifted and Kierans has confirmed Stephen Maher has made a return to Oriel Park.

"Stephen Maher signing has been confirmed. Chris Shields was a massive loss for us tonight. They'll be two big players for us in the run-in. I'd expect Stephen to be available in time for the Drogheda match next week. He's obviously cup-tied for Friday but UCD not winning helped us and there's a long way to go. We're going to keep battling right to the end, 27 points to play for and we will fight for all of them,"

Furthermore, the former Drogheda boss is now making every effort to bolster his squad as they battle against relegation.

"We're looking at a couple. It's late in the window, we can only sign free agents. We're looking here and looking in England and it has to be right for us and right for the club. Hopefully we can do something."

With Dundalk now rooted to the bottom of the table below UCD, the 33 year-old knows that performances have to improve and is hoping it starts this Friday night in the FAI Cup against Malahide United.

"We've had a chat about the performance and what we need to do. The players know it isn't good enough and they know they need to improve. It's got to be better and there's got to be more urgency. We need it to stay off bottom and we're going to need it in Malahide on Friday night."