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With Friday being Ciarán Kilduff's first home league match in charge of Dundalk, we are publishing his programme notes online as he looks ahead to a special Valentine's Night date at Oriel Park.
Good evening and welcome to Oriel Park for our SSE Airtricity Men’s First Division match against Athlone Town. After a long three months of hard work, we have finally arrived here for our league opener against my former club.
I have nothing but fond memories from my time at Athlone. It was great. We achieved everything. When I joined the club initially in 2023, we won the FAI Cup. I had come in halfway through the season, but from there to the following season, winning the President’s Cup, winning the league and qualifying for the Champions League, and getting to another FAI Cup final – ultimately, we were well beaten on the day – I don’t think we could have achieved any more than that. It was a brilliant time. It’s a tenure I’m really proud of. I have a great relationship with the playing squad, but in football, you move on. Things are long forgotten. We go into completely different, unchartered territory, where you’re going head-to-head with the club now. All of that is in the past. It’s football, time moves on. Even that achievement that we had last year is in the past. It’s all about this year.
Dundalk v Athlone, it’s a proper game. I think it’s two teams who expect to be competitive this year at the top end of the table. You can see the players they have signed and the quality they have. We’re going to get a proper game and I’m really looking forward to it.
Athlone are going to be physical, they’re going to be well-organised. They have a lot of quality, a lot of depth. There are players there who were Premier Division players last year playing at Bohemians and Sligo, top players. They’ve gone to Athlone this season and you’d expect that to really rise them as an outfit. They got to the First Division playoff final as it was anyway last year and lost on a penalty shootout to Bray. They could have easily been in the promotion final for Premier Division football. I don’t think we’re going to get a harder game in the First Division than Athlone right now, with the quality they have brought in and the players they kept from last year. I think it should make for a really exciting game. We’re still finding ourselves as to where we’re at right now as a team, as a club and as a group. You couldn’t get a better test on the opening night.
This is going to be a special night for me, my first league game in charge of this club. Everyone needs to feel like that too. It’s my first league game as manager here, but a lot of my staff are in new positions, a lot of new lads have come to the club. For the fans, the club, and the people behind the scenes, we know what we have been through these last few months. It has been really hard to assemble this group. The club needed to galvanise, the club needed to hit the reset. There were some really hard, dark days and a lot of work done in the background.
When I was saying it at the start of the year about how special this game will be, I meant that I just couldn’t wait for this moment tonight which will mean that all of the work that has been going on is worthwhile, justified and we’ll have that opening night feeling of ‘we can concentrate on football’. I think we got a taster against Drogheda two weeks ago of a couple of thousand in the stadium. Opening league night, when there were some really, really worrying times about not even having a licence, I’m not saying the result doesn’t matter, but it is a victory in itself that the club has an opening night game in the league this year. That’s not lost on me or the players and the staff. We appreciate that and we’re going to use that as a driving force this season.
The supporters have always been there for us. They were a huge factor in me taking the role. When I look back on my career, I had my best days here. A lot of my best moments were in front of these supporters. So, when you were making the decision to take the job, you think back to those people. They’re all still here. When I come in, I see a lot of familiar faces. It made the decision, which was a huge decision at the time to come here, a bit easier, knowing that they’re a good support, they’re pure, they’re honest. I believed that they just wanted an honest, young, hungry team for the season ahead. That’s what I’m trying to give them. That’s what the lads are hell-bent on giving them. I couldn’t be prouder of the group. I think the group is, hopefully, going to reflect the fans and it has to work that way – we’re all in this together. The fans stuck by the team last year in a dark moment. Those that stayed and the ones that came in, myself included, stuck by the fans by wanting to dig the club out of this. I believe some people got away with it a little bit last year, if I’m being totally honest. The way the season went, the club got relegated and very rarely do you get away with that. That follows you around. I got relegated once as a player and it’s not something you want on your CV.
But we’re trying to look forward now. The players that are here, the fresh start around the club, we’re trying to rebuild this again. Not on sand – I want to rebuild it on real concrete foundations of an honest team, an honest fanbase. Since I’ve come in, all I feel like I’ve demanded and all I’ve given is an honest day’s work. I think you could see it against Drogheda. We laid a marker and that’s what I said to the lads, we’ve set our standard now, we do not drop below that. That was blood, sweat and tears, but it’s going to be required 36 times this year plus cup games. That is going to have to be every week, constant demands on ourselves.
We’re favourites for the league because we’re the biggest club in the division. You’d have to go far to find many situations where a club loses 19 players, struggles to get a licence, has their budget cut and then ends up being the favourite for the league. But this comes with the territory. I’m delighted we’re favourites, because we believe we should be favourites. We believe that we’re going out here to be the best team. We won’t settle for anything else. The drive this season is to compete at the top end. But there are going to be hurdles, there are going to be stumbling blocks. With that much change, that much transition in such a short off-season – new owners, a new manager, new coaching staff, new players, new system, everything. This is a brand-new group. It needed that, because we’ve been through so much. But that’s going to take time. We’re going to have some great nights. I hope tonight against Athlone is a great night. But I can guarantee you that there are going to be some tough nights, some challenging nights and some long trips, some flat performances and some good performances. But I do believe we can get it right and I believe we’re working hard to make this a team that’s as fluid and smooth as it can be. It takes time. We don’t have the lads twice a day every day anymore. We are working off evening schedules and we’re trying to make every minute with each other count. But I couldn’t be happier with the group of lads and the staff at the minute.
I believe the fans will be proud of us. I think the fans will appreciate and understand what we’re trying to do, how traumatic it has been, not just for them but for the club and the players who have been through it, and new players coming in. But we’re all in it together now. The season kicks off tonight. I kind of built up the Drogheda game as one that we were going to throw everything at and I feel like we did. The fans appreciated it and reciprocated it, and I’m hoping for the same now against Athlone, because let’s be honest, football in Oriel Park is all anyone wanted, myself included. When I took the job, that was the dream, to get to the point where we’d have an opening night. We have it now. I know there’s a little bit personal in it for me that it is Athlone, too, but it didn’t matter who I played, to be honest. I said it at the supporters’ forum in December, whoever we got, just having an opening night and a game here, is special. That might feel like the easy part of it! We are a football club, at the end of the day. All of the other stuff in the background is in the background. People love the team and they love the players. We have that now tonight. That’s why I’m so excited for it, just for that moment, nearly a sigh of relief, that we got to the start of the season. That was not something that was guaranteed for us this year. To have it, I think you have to appreciate it.
Enjoy the match, Ciarán Kilduff.
The Dundalk FC Magazine featuring Ciarán's notes will be on sale at Oriel Park on Friday night, 44 pages, priced at €5. Cash and card payment accepted. Magazine Preview HERE.