Greg Sloggett says that nothing less than two wins from the next two games, starting with the visit of UCD on Monday, will be good enough for Dundalk going into the mid-season break.
The Lilywhites play host to the Students at 5pm on the Bank Holiday before making the trip south to face Cork City at Turner’s Cross on Friday night in the final game before the League of Ireland takes a two-week hiatus.
Friday night’s 2-0 defeat against 10-man Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium means Dundalk have taken just one point from the last 12 and Sloggett said that things need to improve, and fast.
“It’s a massive game on Monday against UCD,” he said. “We need two wins in the next week and, hopefully, it starts on Monday. All of our focus is on that. We need to respond properly because Friday night was very disappointing.
“UCD left Oriel Park with a point on the opening night of the season and you can’t rest on your laurels against them,” he added.
“They’re always a sticky opponent and we dropped points against them last year and we’ve already dropped two points against them this year so there’s no half-measures with them.”
Reflecting on the loss against Rovers, Sloggett said that Dundalk’s inability to keep a clean sheet was hindering their chances.
“We showed some positive strands of ourselves but we just can’t concede goals so cheaply,” he said. “Ultimately, you’re just giving yourself a mountain to climb and that makes life a difficult task.
“That’s the main thing we need to sniff out. If we can do that, there’s positive performances and aspects of our performances that we can really build on but until we snuff those cheap goals out, we’re making it a very difficult task for ourselves.”
