Time to Show Mettle - Gill
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Dundalk manager John Gill has challenged his players to respond positively to last week’s shock home defeat to Longford Town, as they look to get their title bid back on track when they travel to Wexford Youths this weekend. Despite taking just one point from their last two games, the Lilywhites are still in pole position for the sole promotion spot.
And, now, Gill has asked his players to show their mettle as the title race enters its final countdown. “You can either throw in the towel and say we’re not good enough, or you can work harder and reap your rewards that way,” Gill stated to extratime.ie. “It’s a setback; life is full of them. It’s how you react. There was a frank discussion with the players afterwards, I had my say and I asked them for theirs. There wasn’t any bottles being thrown around and it wasn’t beat the chest stuff.
“It’s about getting to the bottom of the problem, and we’ve had a problem for the last seven or eight weeks, even when we were winning games, of giving away sloppy goals. When you give away goals like we’ve been doing, it’s eventually going to catch up on you and you’re going to get punished. But it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s still six games to go, and you can go one of two ways.
“I’m not going to castigate the players, because after 30 games, the same players have us top of the league. We have six games left, three at home and three away, and if we focus and play to our potential, we’re well capable of winning all six. I still feel I have a strong enough squad to go and finish the job.
“I don’t fear any team in this league, once my fellas are tuned in and focussed. If you give any team in this division a goal start, you’re giving yourself a mountain to climb. We seem to like to do things the difficult way here. We take two steps forward to take one back.
“Sometimes, life throws up challenges, and it’s how you react to them that determines the excellent from the good. I never said after the Shels game that we were home and hosed. I said buckle your seatbelts because it’s going to be a rollercoaster ride, and that’s the way it’s going to be. You get nothing easy in this life.”
