Foster taking positives from Euro experience | Airtricity League

Foster taking positives from Euro experience

Dundalk manager Ian Foster says that his side are “looking forward to enjoying a good game” against PFC Levski Sofia in Thursday’s night’s 2nd leg encounter at Oriel Park (Kick-Off 7pm).

Despite a bad run of results, an upbeat Foster said that “the mood in the camp is very good. We need to just take stock of where we are at. We have lost four out of five league games but we have lost to the top four. We are not going to get too disheartened. Last week we lost to the top seeds in the Europa League. Let’s not go over the top. We are working hard on the training pitch to put things right. We know we need to defend much better”.

Despite the heavy defeat last week in Sofia, Foster maintains that the European experience should be viewed as a positive one for Dundalk FC: “It has been a fantastic experience. Our objective was to get through the first round and then keep our fingers crossed as to the outcome of the draw for the 2nd round. Unfortunately, we were drawn against Levski who as we know are an excellent side. We need to remember that Levski have played in the Champions League group stages and beat Lazio in Rome last year. This time two years ago Dundalk were in the First Division. We need to take the experience of European competition and learn from it. The players will learn a lot from playing against a team of this standard.”

Dundalk have injury concerns over Shaun Kelly (tendonitis) and Stephen Maher (slight groin strain) but both are hopeful of making the starting line-up. Liam Burns continues to be absent due to an abdominal injury.

PFV Levski coach Yasen Petrov acknowledged that he expected the return match to be “a good test for his squad” particularly ahead of upcoming games, which includes their local derby against CSKA Sofia sandwiched between the probability of home and away Europa League games against either Kalmar of Sweden or Dacia Chisinau of Moldova.

Although first leg goal-scorer and central playmaker Hristo Yovov along with Dimitar Telkiyski will both sit out this game though injury, record signing Dutch Dusty Myulder is expected to make his competitive debut. First leg Man-of-the-match Joãozinho from Portugal and the exciting French centre forward Garra Dembélé are expected to line out for PFC Levski, with Petrov indicating that changes will be kept to a minimum.

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