David Healy relishing Linfield's trip to Oriel Park

David Healy says tonight’s Unite the Union Cup second leg against Dundalk is now a ‘one off cup final’ following the 1-1 draw at Windsor Park on Friday night.
Linfield boss David HealyLinfield boss David Healy
Linfield boss David Healy

The Linfield boss is relishing the trip to Oriel Park and the chance to pit his wits against the League of Ireland’s top side again.

“Bring it on,” said Healy. “Dundalk are the standout team in the League of Ireland, we’ll be disciplined and organised. It’s a one-off cup final now, if there are no goals after normal time it goes straight to penalties.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I’m looking forward to Monday night, absolutely. I’ve been down several times to Dundalk, been received very warmly although it might be different on Monday, but we look forward to the challenge.

“Vinny (Perth) has done a great job, particularly after Stephen Kenny left, they won the league and narrowly missed out on an incredible treble, so it was a great experience for me to come up against an outfit like that.

“I’ve seen them quite a bit, they’re Champions for a reason so we tried to approach it in a European style of game where we had to be organised and disciplined. I thought we were good in the first half, Dundalk were better in the second half and got their goal, it was fine margins at times.

“We should have been better in our set plays but to be fair Dundalk defended them well. That was the only disappointment for us.”

Lilywhites boss Perth enjoyed Friday night’s tie.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“That was one of the most enjoyable games I’ve been involved in for a long time, I thought the two teams had a right go at each other,” he said.

“I don’t think either team created enough chances but both were dangerous. ,After the first goal, and it was a brilliant finish, we were really in control but to be fair to their manager he made a tactical change and went 3-5-2, and it took us five or ten minutes to adapt but we finished really strongly.

“You could probably have heard what I said at half time. They got a rollicking, even though I thought we were quite good.

When we’re at our best it’s in wide areas and we freshened up our two full backs and two wingers in the hope of hurting Linfield.”