Soccer – Four games remain

LIMERICK FC’s seven-game unbeaten run came to an end last Saturday at Markets Field after a 1-3 defeat to champions Dundalk, who are now just one win away from retaining the Premier Division title.
Martin Russell’s team remains bottom of the league and lies three points behind 11th-placed Galway United, who have a game in hand and who provide Limerick’s next opposition in a week’s time.
The Super Blues got off to the perfect start last weekend taking the lead inside 80 seconds through Dean Clarke, and a series of fine saves by goalkeeper Freddy Hall frustrated Dundalk for most of the game.
The Lilywhites asserted their authority in the final 15 minutes, though, scoring three times in quick succession through a Richie Towell double and Ciaran Kilduff.
While Dundalk’s undoubted class was commendably recognised by the home supporters applauding the visiting team off the pitch at full-time, Russell was left with a sense of what might have been from Limerick’s first defeat in two months.
He said: “At half-time we are going in at 1-0 and in the second half we had the best chance of the game to make it 2-0. Ian [Turner] kept it straight but the keeper made a good save. If it went anywhere either side of him, it’s 2-0, so that shows you how close we were tonight.
“You just want that little rub of the green to maybe get you over the line, especially when you’re playing against a side that has beaten all before them. Also, with young Clarke being brought down in the box again and not being given a penalty, we would have had a cushion before they equalised.
“I don’t know if the second one was possibly a deflection and maybe there was an offside for the third one. We’ll have to look at that again, but they’re beating all before them this season and for 76 minutes we were more than in the game. If we could have got that vital second goal, maybe we’d have gotten more from the game.”
Limerick travel to Galway on Friday October 9 for a match that could have a defining impact on their season and, ahead of that relegation six-pointer, Russell said: “Seven points gets us up to 30. Is there a play-off there? Possibly, so that’s something we’ll aim for and who knows?
“When we went on our run, we focused on the next game and we’re still at that stage where we focus on the next game. Galway is our focus now and we’ll see what happens. All we can do from now to the end of the season is control what we can and see where we are at the end.”