RELEGATION REACTION: JON DALY

Dundalk FC manager Jon Daly hopes that the club can “come back stronger and better than ever” after relegation but he will not be part of the rebuilding process as he is set to rejoin his family in Scotland.

Daly was speaking to the media after the Lilywhites were relegated for the third time in their history, the last coming over 22 years ago, following a 2-0 defeat by double-chasing Derry City at Oriel Park on Friday night.

Dundalk have two games left to play but are eight points adrift of Drogheda United, who they travel to on the final day, at the bottom of the table.

However, despite their fall to the First Division already being confirmed, Daly wants his players to do all they can to finish their home fixtures with a win over Shamrock Rovers next Sunday (kick-off 5.45pm).

Daly on relegation…

“It’s hugely disappointing. I’m gutted for the players, I’m gutted for the fans. The players, the position that they’re in, I don’t think they’ve ever once had games where they’ve downed tools.

“I spoke to them there, if the league table was given on hard work and effort, they’d be right near the very top, but unfortunately in football you need to bring quality as well. Again, tonight, it’s the story of the season, prior to me coming in, since I’ve come in, it’s converting chances and taking chances.

“We’ve never been in a game since I’ve come here that we haven’t created chances, we’ve just failed to take them. There were big opportunities for us again tonight. Unfortunately, everything was straight down Brian Maher’s throat and quite comfortable for him to save. We have to be better in those moments and, ultimately, that’s cost us over the piece.”

On what happens now…

“We get relegated, go down and the club have to try to get themselves back. It’s obviously hugely disappointing. If you look at the support at the end, they were extremely grateful for what they’ve seen on the pitch and supportive of the players.

“But the bottom line is now, the club need to bounce back and they need to have a plan in place to come back stronger and better than ever, get themselves back to where they have been and where they want to go. I think it’s a case of they need to put structures in place to make that happen.”

On his own future…

“My own personal point of view, I’m coming up to four years now away from my family. There was talk previously about them potentially coming over, getting them across and seeing how it went.

“But obviously with everything that has gone on in the background in the last number of months, I think it would be very unfair of me to ask my family to uproot, move country and come over for me, so I think I probably have to put my family first, and that’s what my plan will be.”

On the situation he came into…

“If I had had a brutal, honest assessment of where the club was at, would I have come back? I would have come back with my eyes probably open and in a better position to understand what it was that I was coming into.

“But I was obviously told certain things that probably didn’t come to fruition, that made my job a little more difficult. But I’m not going to make that an excuse for us getting relegated.

“I don’t think we’ve been outclassed or we’ve been outplayed in many games. I think it’s been probably little lapses of concentration defensively or little lack of quality in that final action in front of goal.

“To be fair to the players, lapses in concentration, they’ve got a lot on their minds with everything going on off the pitch. There have been certain games where you’ve not been paid going into it and they might have mortgage payments coming out or whatever, so that is extremely difficult to deal with. It’s not something I’ve dealt with myself as a player, so I can’t put myself in their shoes.

“I can put myself in their shoes in terms of tonight. I’ve been relegated as a player and it is a horrible feeling. You need to try to harness that emotion and that feeling of tonight and make sure that it doesn’t happen you again going forward.

“You might think getting out to a ball to block a shot, we’ve had moments in games where we can maybe put a body on the line to block a shot, we don’t and we concede – it’s those little things that all add up to the bigger picture of getting relegated.

“To answer the question, I don’t know if I’d be here or if I would or wouldn’t have come. I think I would have at least had a clearer picture of what I was coming into.

“My plan wasn’t to come in and rip a squad apart and try to build a new squad midseason. Coming in, I thought I’d add three maybe four players, and you lose the bones of nine or ten players, which is huge and it makes it extremely difficult.

“It’s a difficult one. I’m sure the club will be back. When? Who knows. I think it’s important that the structures off the pitch are put in place to really help them get back as quickly as possible.

“I’d imagine that there is going to be a reset for the club and it’s probably a good time to be a young player at the club because there’ll be opportunities going forward I’d say for young players to come in and establish themselves.

“There are some good young players in the Academy which we’ve seen with the recent international call-ups, so there’ll be opportunities going forward I’d imagine for these young players.”

On Shamrock Rovers next week and potential team selection…

“The integrity of the league is still there. I don’t want to be hearing about Rovers winning five-in-a-row. We want to try to stop that, we want to try to make sure we do everything we can to stop that.

“The team that goes on to win the league will be the team that deserves to win the league. We’ll go into that, assess who’s fit, who’s available later in the week and pick a team off the back of that.

“I think it’s important that we still try to finish our last home game as strong as possible and try to get three points on the board, albeit that it doesn’t change our situation.”

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