Mackey hopeful Dundalk can get a good run of results to put pressure on leaders

Dundalk FC could be without John Martin for a ‘matter of weeks’ after the ex-Waterford player picked up a knock in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Shelbourne, which kept him out of Friday night’s 2-0 SSE Airtricity League win over UCD at Oriel Park.

Goals in either half from Daniel Kelly and Patrick Hoban secured what was a second win of the campaign for Stephen O’Donnell’s side, and although Martin played no part, Dundalk finally welcomed Darragh Leahy back into the fold for the first time this season.

“He did extremely well and it’s great to have Darragh back,” first-team manager Dave Mackey told Democrat columnist Gerry Malone afterwards.

“We’ve good competition now in the full-back positions, but Darragh is left-footed, left-sided and really gives us good stability on that particular side.

“In terms of other injuries we had, John Martin missed out tonight. He has a knock on his knee, but John should be back in a matter of weeks.”

After suffering a first defeat of the year before the international break, Mackey is hopeful The Lilywhites can now go on a run of form that will keep pressure on the chasing pack.

“We’re really pleased with the performance tonight. We’ve had a good opportunity to build up to this game with the international break.

“After the disappointing result against Drogheda, it’s now a question of trying to build on this performance and having a consistency of performances going forward, but we’re absolutely pleased with the performance and the result tonight.”

Friday’s win over The Students represented Dundalk’s fourth clean sheet of the campaign, which is already half the tally they managed throughout the entirety of 2021.

Mackey is satisfied with a backline which hasn’t conceded a goal from open play in any of their last six league fixtures – a far cry from shipping four from their opening two games.

“Defensively, it’s important to us,” he added. “I think that’s the fourth clean sheet we’ve had and we’ve conceded two penalties in two of the other games, so it’s something that we’ve been working on.

“In possession, I thought we created and scored two fine goals tonight. The work that we’ve done since the start of the season and also particularly within the last two weeks, we need to build on that now and that’s how we’ll approach the next game against Pats.”

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