Ciaran Kilduff Sesalkan Penurunan Performa Dundalk Jelang Laga Bohemians

Manajer Dundalk Ciaran Kilduff menyoroti penurunan standar permainan anak asuhnya pada awal babak kedua yang mengakibatkan kekalahan 1-3 dari Bohemians menjelang laga lanjutan Premier Division di Stadion Dalymount Park, Jumat malam, 15 Mei 2026.

Kekalahan tersebut membuat Dundalk kini terpaut enam poin dari zona play-off degradasi, meskipun sempat mendominasi jalannya pertandingan pada paruh pertama. Kilduff menegaskan pentingnya konsistensi permainan demi memperbaiki posisi di klasemen Liga Irlandia musim ini.

"We’re in a moment right now," ujar Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Kilduff menyayangkan hilangnya kendali permainan tim setelah jeda babak pertama, padahal ia menilai timnya memiliki kemampuan untuk memenangkan pertandingan tersebut berdasarkan performa di awal laga.

"We showed in the first half we had the team to win that game of football but in the second half it didn’t look like it," kata Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Ia mengingatkan para pemain bahwa sebagai tim promosi baru, mereka harus tetap kompetitif dan menjaga perspektif meski hasil akhir tidak berpihak kepada mereka malam itu.

"We need a bit of perspective as well. We’re the newly promoted team and we’re holding our own to the best of our ability. We’ve been competitive in that game tonight even though the result has gone the other way," tutur Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Meskipun lini pertahanan telah kebobolan 16 kali dalam 10 pertandingan, Kilduff tetap memberikan pembelaan terhadap kiper Enda Minogue namun mengakui kegagalan bermain maksimal selama 25 menit di babak kedua adalah kesalahan fatal.

"Maybe earlier in the season we’d be competitive and come out on the right end of the scoreline but I think if you don’t play for that 25 minutes then you don’t deserve to come away with anything. We probably got what we deserved in that capacity," ucap Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Dundalk juga harus menghadapi tantangan absennya sejumlah pemain pilar seperti Scott Brady, Owen Lambe, Ethan O’Brien, Bridel Bosakani, dan Jason Bucknor dalam persiapan menghadapi jadwal padat liga.

"If we had played anyway like we had in the first half in the second half then I think we go on and win the game. I was hoping to go and get the second goal but it definitely didn’t look like we were ever going to do that," kata Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Fokus hingga akhir laga menjadi pesan utama Kilduff kepada para pemain, mengingat poin hanya bisa didapatkan jika tim mampu mempertahankan performa hingga peluit panjang dibunyikan.

"You don’t get any points at half-time. They only come at full time," tegas Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Secara taktis, tim diprediksi menggunakan formasi 1-5-3-2 untuk meredam skema Bohemians, namun Kilduff merasa penurunan level permainan membuat mereka mendapatkan hukuman berat dari lawan.

"Yeah, for 45 minutes we felt dominant, scored a good goal, had other chances, limited them to no chances of any note but then you give 25 minutes like that at the start of a second half against any team in this division then you’ll get royally punished and we did," ujar Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Situasi tim semakin sulit setelah Rob Cornwall menerima kartu merah akibat pelanggaran terhadap Ross Tierney, yang melengkapi kekecewaan manajer atas hilangnya performa tim di babak kedua.

"We had 45 minutes of really good stuff and then 25 minutes of absolute nothing. That’s very disheartening," kata Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Kilduff menilai tren kebobolan gol di awal babak kedua sebagai hal yang tidak dapat diterima, terutama karena tim sudah bekerja keras dalam durasi pertandingan yang panjang.

"Nothing really changed in our ethos but we have a little bit of a trend now just after half time of conceding goals and it’s not good enough. It’s unacceptable. We’re working too hard for large periods of games to come away and drop our standards and drop our levels for even 10 minutes, never mind the 25 that we did," ucap Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.

Kekalahan ini ditutup dengan evaluasi mengenai gol pembuka lawan yang terjadi akibat buruknya koordinasi saat menyapu bola serta hukuman penalti yang menjadi titik balik laga.

"The first goal is a calamity of trying to clear the ball from your box, it bobbles and ends up in your net. The second goal is a red card and a penalty and that was all that she really wrote from there," pungkas Ciaran Kilduff, Manajer Dundalk.