SOME PEOPLE MIGHT have been forgiven for expecting standards to slip somewhat, after the much-heralded Stephen Kenny left Dundalk to take over Ireland U21s before the start of last season.
But domestically at least, the Lilywhites maintained and built on the club’s previous dominance in recent years.
They were a penalty shootout away from completing a domestic treble, but missed out amid a tight and tense FAI Cup final with Shamrock Rovers.
They still claimed the league title fairly comfortably, however, finishing 11 points ahead of nearest rivals the Hoops, confirming their status as champions by beating Stephen Bradley’s side 3-2, as they prevailed with five games to spare.
Yet after one terrific season, Perth — who was Kenny’s assistant before becoming the main man — feels neither he nor his team can afford to rest on their laurels.
“We have to challenge the group and raise the bar,” he says. “We have to be better at what we do around Europe time and around how we play in the league. Don’t misunderstand, we zoned in on that, winning all of the domestic trophies that we could. This year, we are not taking that for granted, but we are discussing other things, and some of those are playing better in terms of our league performances, and being ready around Europe.”
Europe in particular was perceived as the one black mark against Perth and his side last year.
In Champions League qualifying, they defeated Riga on penalties, before being well beaten by Azerbaijani outfit Qarabag 4-1 on aggregate thereafter. They then fell to Slovan Bratislava by the same aggregate scoreline in the Europa League’s third qualifying round. Inevitably, everything tends to be compared to their 2016 campaign, when the Lilywhites regularly exceeded expectations and became just the second Irish side to reach the Europa League group stages and first to win a game.
While Perth acknowledges those performances last year were below-par, the 43-year-old coach insists a degree of realism is needed too.
We do [need to play better] but somebody also needs to wake up and smell the coffee. I was talking to a European player and it looks like he is going to go to Riga for three or four times the money I could afford to pay him.
“Everyone in Europe is chasing Europe. The three teams we played last year, one got a play-off and the other two played in the group stages. And at times we got criticised for certain performances in Europe, rightly so, but that’s the standard now, the standard is getting higher and there is huge investment in clubs to go after Europe, so it is difficult. But I do think that Irish football needs somebody else to crack the group stages, because the environment is there to help our league kick on, so we have to chase it.”
Even domestically, Perth feels Dundalk can at times be eclipsed by others who are better able to attract players.
“Our underage set-up is probably not given the same floodlights as others. It’s a lot smaller, with smaller numbers. It’s difficult to get top players up to Dundalk and we can’t compete with the hotbeds of Irish soccer in terms of Dublin, but we still have a lot of young players coming through and we have put a lot of young players on professional contracts and we are building towards the future in that context.
Our 13s, 15s, 17s, 19s would have some Malahide players. We would also have players from different parts of Dublin who would come up and lads from all up that M1 commuter belt. The problem for us is that if a guy lives in Blanchardstown, he’s 10 minutes from Rovers… But he is an hour at four o’clock away from six o’clock training… That’s the difficulty and then we have exam times, so we have to be careful through the next six months with these young players.
“It’s why we have to push in Irish football for an U23 league.”
With Rovers in particular benefiting from a flourishing underage set-up and showing signs of significant improvement at first-team level, as evidenced by a first FAI Cup triumph since 1987 last November, Perth knows his men will need to be as strong as ever if they are to secure a sixth league title in seven years.
The Dublin-born manager, who once worked in the catering industry, has been at the club eight years now. However, given that it’s just his second season as manager, does he feel more prepared now having spent a little over 12 months in this unfamiliar role?
“Yeah, I suppose,” he says. “I’m driven by fear. I worked in the private sector for many, many years. I still drive past that job and I’m driven by fear so I don’t take what I do for granted. I got some personal honours at the end of the season and they were massive. But in one sense, they still annoy you, because you have to remind yourself not to rest on your laurels. It is a big cliché, but I do believe in striving to be better tomorrow, that’s what drives me. I’ve done a huge amount of work on my own personal development over the last six months and hope that stands me in good stead going into the new season.
“I would have done a certain amount of leadership courses. I’m not a reader, but [I've done] a huge amount of reading on leadership and understanding that I manage 35 people, I’ve spoken to people in other sports about that. People like Jim Gavin would have given me some insight. I’ve been in that rugby world to see what they do with Leinster and the IRFU. But now it’s sort of time to forget all of that, take what I learned and see if I can put it into practice. Only time will tell, but I do believe I’ve got to get better this season.
I suppose last year I probably coached the team more than a manager should, because I’d been the coach for seven years. Now it’s time to manage the team. I believe there are three elements to this role: there’s being a coach, there’s being a manager and there’s being a leader. And I wasn’t a leader last year, I was a coach-stroke-manager. Now I’m trying to evolve into being a manager-stroke-leader, because I think it would be another edge for the group, so that’s where I’m trying to get to.
“That’s why I say I’m driven by fear. I’m six, 10 weeks away from losing my job at any stage. It’s not something I fear, but I’m driven by it — making sure that you are working hard enough to ensure it doesn’t happen and yet it could happen no matter how hard you try. It’s a difficult industry.”
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Send those boys to Slovakia!
Zack Elbouzedi is some player MOTM from where I was sitting
@Eoin Murphy: he was excellent against Armenia as well.
@Eoin Murphy: He had a stint with WBA, I guess like Jack Byrne they will be heading back across the Irish sea again….soon!
Terrific 2nd half. Watched few of u21 games this year and they have given me hope COYBIG
I thought Lee O’Connor was terrific as well, a goal and an assist and equally worthy of MOTM.
I was roaring at the telly last night for Mick to bring Troy on in the last few minutes, really believe he could have got us something, well done Kenny and Co. The senior management need to take a leap with some of these young players, some are clearly better footballers than some regulars on the first team. Be brave Mick, we need natural strikers in the team against Slovakia
@Jimjamjim: stopped reading after roaring at the telly
@Jason Oliver: most of us watched it on telly,unfortunately we can’t all go to Dublin on a Monday night and take Tuesday off
@Jason Oliver: never read “after roaring at the telly”
@Pete mc pete: I didn’t get the impression that watching it on telly was the thing he was slagging.
Very encouraging talent in that team, and made all the better by the very smart manager. Kenny can’t take over the senior squad quick enough.
Like the new kit!
A
Such a brilliant send half performance. Ronan was like a man possessed and Parott worked so hard at tracking back. That being said they were helped by Sweden collapsing
Any chance of a look at the goals lads?
They’re all linked from this match thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/coybig/comments/dylpdn/match_thread_ireland_u21_v_sweden_u21_u21s/
If he had brought on troy and Maguire we would have qualified
@Tony O Neill: with hendrick in midfield he wouldn’t have got the ball
@Eoin Murphy:
@Tony O Neill: You must have fallen asleep. He did bring on Maguire.
This is the most excited I’ve been about a group of young Irish players since Brian Kerrs under 16s and 18s in the 90s. Especially the attacking players. To think that we had two premiership strikers missing tonight but still put out the talent we did is crazy. Crazier still is that several of them are still in their teens and could have a couple or more years in the U 21s, though I suspect a few will be fast tracked into the senior squad more regularly.
@Ger: Always good to get your perspective Ger on the matches. I’ll make a few observations from this eventful week for Ireland (all levels). Our U17s beat Israel 4-2. Our U21s beat Sweden 4-1 (7-1 over both matches with them). McCarthy stuck to relying on the same starting 11 he has used for the most part throughout the group games. And yet, probably with a stark reminder and boot up the backside, the same players who could not pass a ball or keep possession, played last night, not with huff and puff, but with confidence, belief, and dare I say, like a team who can boss a match by playing football and even entertain. The same players who looked inept against Gibraltar and Georgia months ago.
There were few poor performances. They just didn’t have that one or two players to make a difference. Whelan is limited, but hats off to the guy. He has often outshone his midfield compatriots this campaign, including Hourihane and Hendrick and McLean. He does his job given by the manager, they don’t.
Like you. I’m positive. I have some serious concerns about Moran and the U19s. They seem out of sinc with the other youth levels. McCarthy can have his March Fair and let’s see where we go from there. By then, Kenny, hopefully, will have the U21s qualified, and ready to move in. It can’t come soon enough and a clearout of at least a third of the current senior squad.
Brilliant performance in the second half! Every single player at least 8/10.
@mar: Unfortunately there are 90 minutes in a match.
Agree with alot of comments here, was at both games, best performance in a good while on Monday, left me thinking about settling for a draw in Georgia, win that game and a draw would have done us. I know people will say Denmark didn’t beat them either but we had a chance and we really didn’t go for it. I thought Browne was excellent on Monday.
As for last night the result and second half performance was very impressive, coming from 1 down and bossing the game was great to see, one person not mentioned in comments was Liam Scales, thought he was terrific when he came on.
Future looks bright
Move all u21s up to senior squad