John Mountney has urged his Dundalk teammates to wake up as the club captain feels the Lilywhites “are sleepwalking into relegation”, with just five games remaining in the club’s bid to extend their top-flight stay to 17 seasons.
The Lilywhites go into Friday night’s home game with Bohemians sitting five points adrift at the bottom of the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division table after last Saturday’s 2-1 loss away to Sligo Rovers.
After going in front through Robbie Benson’s penalty, Dundalk let a half-time lead slip for the third time in their past five outings and Mountney was left deeply frustrated by how they conceded both goals, which came in a costly seven-minute spell during which centre-half Hayden Cann was sent off for a foul as last man on Luke Pearce.
The 31-year-old Mayo native says he “hates having the same conversations and saying the same things” every week and that it is now time for the players to pay back the support that new owner John Temple and the fans have shown them when Bohemians rock into town this Friday night.
On the result in Sligo…
“It was a tough week in general for the club. Obviously, there was bad news on Maxi as well. We were all thinking about him; he was in everyone’s mind, even in the team talk going into the game.
“We really wanted to give everyone a lift. We wanted to lift ourselves as a group first of all in our league position and we wanted to give those fans a lift, with how supportive they are.
“The stature of Dundalk, it’s such a big club. Seeing them staying out again, cheering us on, with the position we’re in and after another disappointing result – it’s a testament to them, really. It says a lot about them.
“It was disappointing. The start is exactly what we wanted with the goal and 1-0 up at half-time. I think we had a lot of chances. We were really good in the first half, as good as I’ve seen us in a while, especially away from home, we were that dominant.
“In the second half, I didn’t think they had many moments, and then to give up the goals. The first one was a poor goal to give up. For the second, we need to get contact on the striker running through, it was a two-v-one, and just stop giving up sloppy goals.
“You can see we’re in every game but we’re just coming out the wrong side. We’re giving up big moments in games, which we can’t do. We’re sleepwalking into relegation here.
“We’ve got five games left. Whatever about performances or how we’re getting on, we just need to come out the right side of games – I don’t care how we do it. We’re running out of Friday nights now.”
On giving up half-time leads in three of the last five games…
“I just think it’s man-managing moments, everyone being really concentrated and aware in the moment. It was a silly foul to give away that led to the goal – we don’t need to foul there, just step off, we’re not under any pressure and then all of a sudden that leads to something and then we don’t defend the seconds from the cross.
“It honestly comes down to just individually being zoned in – really zoned into what your job is, where you are on the pitch and not to give up anything.
September 21st 2024; A view of the scoreboard after the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division match between Sligo Rovers and Dundalk at The Showgrounds in Sligo. Photo by Tom Beary/Sportsfile
“I don’t think there’s much to read into it. The fight is there. You can see that with the lads. I know the fight is there. When you’re at the bottom, you cannot give up. Nothing gets easier than that, you’re 1-0 up, with over 20 minutes to go, you just can’t end up conceding two goals. We had to finish the match with ten men, you’re just fighting an uphill battle then.”
On the connection with supporters…
“I think there is unity with the fans and players. Those fans have seen us just four years ago playing in Europa League games, at the highest level. I know it was during Covid, but in general, and before that.
“Every one of them I know have been there and seen Dundalk at the highest level. Dundalk is a massive club. It’s difficult for them to see where we’re at. It’s tough on us, we don’t want to be there at all, the fans don’t want to see that.
“But the way they’ve conducted themselves over the last while has really shown why they are the best fans in the country and why we are, in my opinion, the biggest club in the country. It’s when we’re at our lowest like this and you see them getting behind us, it shows it’s a big club.
“We just need to get ourselves out of it. I hate having the same conversations and saying the same things. We just need to keep fighting. We’ve said it before. Dundalk is a working-class town, everyone in that town fights for their earning, fights for everything they do day-to-day, they work hard and spend their money to support us. We need to keep fighting.
“We roll into another game now. But there is accountability within. We can’t just keep saying ‘next game’, ‘next game’, there has to be accountability and get to the bottom of these issues that are happening on the pitch.
“There are five big games left. We play Bohemians at home on Friday and it’s a massive, massive game for us. We can’t get anything less than three points – it’s as simple as that.”
On new owner John Temple…
“He has openly said that Dundalk is still in a very tricky situation. Regarding us as players, he reassured us that our wages are there for the rest of the season and that’ll be sorted. We can’t ask for anything else, that’s all we want.
“A few days before that, we were thinking we won’t get to kick another ball, it’s out of our hands, whether Dundalk stays up or goes down. Now, the ball is back in our side of the court and it’s up to us. We’re the only ones that can keep this club afloat.
“The owner has said he’ll give us every chance and support us, and you can see the fans are. It comes down to us as players. The manager has given us every chance. It comes down to every individual that steps on that pitch, we need to man up and step up to the challenge because Dundalk is way too big of a club to go down.”
