Darren Mansaram got his first goal for Dundalk in last weekend's derby match against Drogheda United - now he hopes to follow that up with plenty more for the Lilywhites.

The English striker scored on his home debut for his new club during their 3-0 victory over the Drogs at Oriel Park. Mansaram is confident that his partnership with Declan O'Brien will prove to be fruitful for the Lilywhites.

"It’s nice to get my first goal but the most important thing is that we got some points on the board," he said. "That’s the first time the fans have seen me play as I was out for the Celtic and Bohs games. Personally, that was a good start to get a goal on my home debut.

"It was great for me that we went with such an attacking formation. We went through the stats at half-time and Singhy had put eight crosses into the box by that stage. That’s a real positive for us – If you know that the crosses will come into the box it means I can go and attack the ball. I was lucky enough that I was able to stick away one of his crosses.

"My partnership with Declan (O’Brien) is coming along nicely. That was the first time we had played together so we still need to work on certain things. But generally I think it worked well tonight. When we came in Monday the lads had the grit between their teeth to work hard for tonight.

Winger Harpal Singh said that getting the first win of the campaign under their belts would help the Lilywhites push on up the table now.

"It’s a massive weight off our shoulders to get the first win under our belts," he said. "It was disappointing not get any points from our first two games. Our performance against Bohs was good enough to get at least a point. We didn’t perform against Galway. We knew that this game was a huge match with it being a local derby.

"I was happy with my performance as I was able to get good balls into the box. This was down to the team behind me. Dave Rogers has been fantastic and gets me on the ball regularly, as do the the midfielders. They know that if they canget me in one-on-one situations then I can do well.

"This time last week I was very disappointed. It was a big week for us to recover. It starts again on Monday as we build up towards the St Pat’s game."