Ciarán Kilduff reflected on a “sobering night” after suffering his first competitive defeat as Dundalk manager, with Usher Celtic coming from behind to win 2-1 in Leinster Senior Cup Group B at Oriel Park on Monday night.
The Lilywhites took a deserved 61st-minute lead through Eoin Kenny, but they were left stunned by 2023 finalists Usher’s comeback as Graham Curran’s 70th-minute penalty and Gary Gannon’s last-minute close-range finish saw the Dubliners move level with Dundalk in the table.
Kilduff had made six changes to the starting XI from Friday’s 4-0 win at home to Malahide United in this competition and made three half-time substitutions as well as two more switches after Kenny’s goal.
But the manager says he must give opportunities and minutes to players in pre-season, as he revealed that Aidan Russell Vargas, Muhammad Haris and TJ Molloy are set to play a part in the behind-closed-doors friendly with Ireland Under-19s at Abbotstown this Friday (kick-off 7pm).
And the 36-year-old says that his team will be better for what he called a “kick in the teeth” that “will sting and hurt” everybody in the camp, with the ultimate aim to be ready when Athlone Town rock into town for the First Division opener on Valentines Night.
20 January 2025; A general view of Oriel Park before the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
Kilduff on the result v Usher…
“It’s a kick in the teeth. In the first half, we were very, very dominant, didn’t get a goal. Then we got the goal, and it was probably the worst thing that could have happened at that stage because I felt like when we got the goal, we probably relaxed a little bit.
“We’re together now 19 days as a group. Football is never easy. I think that lesson there tonight, you’ve got to keep going. Football is never going to be easy here for us, teams are going to come here and play like that at times and have the quality to hurt you like they did.
“It’s a sobering enough night for us, but one you need in pre-season to be better in a month’s time.”
20 January 2025; Harry Groome of Dundalk in action against Leroy Staunton, right, and Keith Ashmore of Usher Celtic during the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
On the first half and missed chances…
“When you’re creating chances, you’re looking for that final ball, or that little bit of quality. We even missed a lot of chances on Friday night as well against Malahide, but you’re creating them.
“Usher got to the final of this (in September 2023), they’re one of the best amateur teams in the country, they’re well able to defend. They’re a different challenge to what Malahide were.
“We looked threatening. I was happy enough with a lot of aspects of the game. You’re just kind of waiting to maybe be clinical in a moment or get that opening goal and then show a bit of composure. But the goal came a little bit later, into the second half, and then that composure left us.
“It’s not about being ready this week, even if we played brilliantly tonight and won the game. It matters nothing for where we’re trying to go. We trained yesterday, we’ll train tomorrow, and we’ll be trying to be in a better place in a couple of weeks’ time.”
20 January 2025; Wayne Walker of Usher Celtic in action against Sean Spaight of Dundalk during the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
On what went wrong after taking the lead…
“It’s pre-season, it’s hard not to make emotional decisions and try to win the game. We had Andy Paraschiv playing right-back, we had Seán Spaight – who I thought was brilliant as well – at left-back, we got another 90 minutes into Vinnie Leonard after playing 75 the other day.
“You’re talking about 15, 16 and 17-year-olds. Then Conor O’Keeffe playing centre-half instead of right-back, because you know you can’t go with Mayowa (Animasahun) again, and Sammy (Safaei) is in goals.
“We had a real blend of youth and new faces in the dressing-room. I was slagging O’Keeffe at the start of the second half, he was captaining the team and he’s only here three weeks! It’s that reality of where we are right now. That has to be put on display.
20 January 2025; Daryl Horgan of Dundalk in action against Leroy Staunton of Usher Celtic during the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
“But it’s no excuse or anything like that. You need to be able to see games out. These are the tests we want now. This is the reason why we created to play on the Friday and the Monday against teams the way we are, so that we know how it’s going to look on a Monday after playing on a Friday, you need to be able to go again.
“Lads will be better for tonight. We all will. We trained well yesterday, we played well at times tonight, not good enough at all at times, but we’ll train again tomorrow, and we’ll dust off.
“The reality is that we’ve got a big game against Ireland (Under-19s) on Friday, the following week we have Drogheda in the Malone Cup and then it’s two weeks leading us into a massive opener against Athlone.
“All of this is just part of pre-season. It was better to get a hard kick in the teeth tonight than if it was easy and we came away thinking we’ve arrived. We’ve far from arrived at 19 days together as a group.
“Work to be done and we’ll take what we can out of it.”
20 January 2025; Andy Paraschiv of Dundalk in action against Leroy Staunton of Usher Celtic during the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
On learning more from this game than Malahide…
“Absolutely. Massively. To be fair, at times I thought in the first half we were so dominant in our possession. We went the Malahide game and the first half tonight without conceding a shot on target.
“Then all of a sudden you get that slap back to reality in the second half where Sammy makes a save at the start of it, then they score a penalty and then they score again.
“It puts to bed any thoughts that this was ever going to be easy. We are a team that has to be based on grit ourselves and determination. There’s a street smartness and a cuteness to those players with Usher, those lads have been around for years, some of them are more than capable of playing First Division football.
20 January 2025; Eoin Kenny of Dundalk celebrates after scoring during the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Gerry Scully/Dundalk FC.
“We should be better than that as well ourselves tonight. There are no excuses for it or anything like that.
“But, as I said, there are no emotional decisions being made tonight. Win, lose or draw, we were training tomorrow. Unfortunately, tonight, we got a lesson in how not to finish a game and we’ll be better for it.
“You want it to hurt, because it hurts me, and it hurts everyone. It’s never a good feeling losing a game of football. But you do still have to step back and realise it’s the 20th of January; it’s pre-season and we are where we are right now.”
20 January 2025; Jordan Buckley of Usher Celtic is tackled by Mayowa Animasahun of Dundalk during the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
On Friday’s game with Ireland Under-19s…
“We’re going to have to go probably youth against youth there, young lads, like for example Mo (Muhammad Haris) and Aido (Russell Vargas) and these lads, they’ll need to play again.
“I thought they did well when they came on against Malahide and you need to get a look at them. There are lads getting opportunities and playing their way into your plans, and then at times lads might play themselves out of your plans because of how they’re taking these opportunities.
“This is what I’m doing. If you look at tonight, 16 players played, 22 played against Shelbourne, 16 played against Malahide, all getting good minutes in. You’re nearly going ‘put your hand up and grab a jersey’, because I genuinely have no idea what my starting team is going to be in a month’s time.
20 January 2025; Dundalk assistant manager Ken Kiernan before during the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
“It’s up to players to show me that they’re the answer and they want to be the ones to play for this team, the way we want to play, represent the club and in their approach.
“We’re in our infancy to a point that these lads are getting opportunities – some are taking them and some probably aren’t right now. But there is still loads of time left.
“We’re training hard, we’re in a really hard period of pre-season right now where we’re training hard and playing games, two games in 72 hours there.
“Vinnie Leonard has played 75 minutes and 90 minutes of senior football there, probably for the first time ever in his career, and this will all stand to all of these players in a month’s time.”
20 January 2025; Sean Keogh of Dundalk in action against Usher Celtic players, from left, Paul Murphy, Jordan Buckley and Keith Ashmore during the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
On having a more settled team for Drogheda on 31st January…
“By the time you come to the Athlone game, you want to have worked with the players that are going to be the answer. It doesn’t just all click together.
“We’ve had two games there, we’ve had Shels, the week we play Drogheda we also play Shelbourne on the Saturday morning.
“We’ll have an 11 for Drogheda which we’re hopeful will be lads who we’re feeling are nearly ready, and then Saturday morning other lads will still get their opportunity for 90 minutes against a good Shelbourne team in the AUL. There are still loads of opportunities to come for lads.
“Obviously, the Drogheda game is a spicy fixture because it might be the only one of the season, it’s here and it’s an opportunity. We’ll be looking forward to it, but again, you try not to get sucked into the emotion of it and lose a player or risk a player in pre-season before any competitive, real football has been played.
“All of that will be priced into hopefully putting on a better performance here in our next home game than we did this evening in the second half.”
20 January 2025; Dundalk manager Ciaran Kilduff before the Leinster Senior Cup match between Dundalk and Usher Celtic at Oriel Park in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
On his overall feeling on where we stand…
“I was never under any illusion from when I took the job when we didn’t have a licence to tonight when we’ve lost a game. It was never going to be easy. But we just need to take a breath – everything is good now; the club is in a good place.
“The young players that were on show there tonight, they need this opportunity. If I wasn’t throwing Aido, Mo and TJ and these lads minutes next Friday, I’m not doing my job right.
“I need lads to show me they’re good enough. Some of them have shown me they are, some have shown me that they’re not. That’s the reality of football; it’s a game of opinions.
“I know when we blend this all together and we put the men and the young fellas that are ready on the pitch at the one time, we’ll be in a really good position. You’re not going to do that tonight on a Monday after playing on Friday, go full strength again and not give lads opportunities.
“We’ll probably be better for this tonight, if I’m being honest about it. That lesson, that kick in the teeth, will sting and hurt both as staff and as players to be better. We’ve just got to come in tomorrow and train again, and that’s the reality of pre-season.
“It’s all about hard work at this point and let’s be honest, the last half-an-hour of that was hard work.”
