Disappointment was etched all over the face of Jamie Gullan as he left Weaver’s Park on Monday afternoon, with the Scottish striker saying that his first Louth Derby goal meant nothing following Dundalk’s 2-1 defeat.
Trailing to Frantz Pierrot’s opener, the game was turned on its head when Drogs goalkeeper Jethren Barr was shown a red card for taking Cameron Elliott out of it. From the subsequent free-kick, Gullan smashed a low drive past substitute netminder Andrew Wogan to register his third goal for the club.
It looked like Dundalk would push on for the win after that but it was the 10-man Drogs who had the final say with Hayden Cann’s 94th-minute strike condemning the Lilywhites to a crushing defeat on Boyneside.
“The goal felt unreal at the time but right now it doesn’t mean anything,” said Gullan afterwards. “I would have given up the goal for the three points. It’s frustrating. With them going down to 10 men and us scoring straight away, I thought that it had swung in our favour.
“I think if you look at it, we score against 10 men and the momentum is with us but we just didn’t capitalise as well as we could have and I don’t think we gave it a go as much as we could have when they went down to 10 men so it’s an incredibly frustrating afternoon.
Jamie Gullan of Dundalk scores his side’s first goal during the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division match between Drogheda United and Dundalk at Weavers Park in Drogheda, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
“For large parts of it we held ourselves up and competed well but it’s just two lapses of concentration that have cost us the game in the end and not capitalising on the man advantage.
“You come into the changing room after losing in that manner and it’s horrible. Any game or any loss like that is hard to take but especially a derby because we know what it means to the fans and everyone involved in the club. We just wish we could have got them the three points. “
The defeat, coupled with results elsewhere, leaves Dundalk five points adrift of the Drogs and a further three behind eighth-placed Sligo Rovers but Gullan said he had full belief in the squad’s ability to claw their way out of danger, starting with this Friday’s clash against Waterford FC at the RSC.
“There’s still a long way to go,” he said. “We’re not going to be looking at the table after this game and getting all worried about it. There’s a lot of football to be played and we know we’ve got enough in this changing room to get ourselves out of it.
“There’s no panic. We’ll just recover as quickly as possible and this Friday against Waterford is the only important game now. We’ll focus on that and take it week by week. I know that’s a cliché but it’s all we can do.
“We’ll go to the RSC and try to take the game to them and try to come home with the three points. This one hurts and it’ll hurt for the next few days but the main focus now is Waterford on Friday and making it right.”
