Kenny rues soft goal

Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny has expressed his disappointment at the soft goal that has left his side’s chances of qualification for the knock-out stages of the Europa League hanging by a thread.

Kenny felt his side were punished for a slow start to the game against AZ Alkmaar at the Tallaght Stadium, but praised his team’s fighting spirit which saw them pushing for an equaliser right up until the final whistle.

Wout Weghorst won the game for the Dutch side with the only goal after just nine minutes which puts a severe dent in Dundalk’s chances of making it to the knock-out stages of the competition as they need Zenit St Petersburg to do them a favour in Holland while needing against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel.

“We didn’t start well early on and I felt we needed to see out that period and we didn’t. We conceded an awful goal from our point of view,” Kenny said after the game.

“It was so soft. If a team as good as AZ is going to come here, you want to make them work for their goals, so to give them a goal like that is unforgivable really.

“We got back into the game and had some good passages of play and were unfortunate on occasions I felt not to equalise.

“Overall, AZ had much better chances than us and Gary Rogers kept us in it with a few good saves, but I think the players showed their resilience until the final whistle.

“The players kept going right to the end and showed great spirit. They showed that we are not out of it yet.

“We were punished for our careless start and paid the price for it.

“It’s a very, very disappointing result for us, but we’re still in with a shout. We have to go to Israel and win which is a tough ask, but we have beaten Maccabi already.

“We’re not asking the players to do something they haven’t done already.We’ll have to give it a go out there.”

Photo: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

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