Dundalk's Greg Sloggett urges Derry City players to 'keep the faith'

The former City midfielder helped the Candy Stripes secure European football last year before making the all-too familiar switch from Brandywell to Dundalk.

Sloggett, who played the full 90 minutes of Monday night's game, played a key role in Dundalk's opening strike as he burst into the penalty area before setting up Sean Murray after just eight minutes.

He admits Dundalk were expecting a tough night on Foyleside and reckons Devine's charges have been unfortunate to find themselves languishing third from bottom in the table and are better than what their league position would suggest.

"It's been such a strange league and a strange year," said the Meath man. "I've followed closely all the games and I think some of the games Derry have been so unfortunate to come away on the losing side or even suffer last minute draws.

"It's been hard going for them but they've got to keep the faith here. Playing like they did against us out there and the way they moved the ball it's actually an improvement in possession based football versus last year in my opinion.

"They were really impressive out there and I can see good things coming for Derry."

The fixture schedule hasn't been favourable for Dundalk facing into the club's historic Europa League group stage opener against Molde at Tallaght tomorrow.

A trip to Derry just two days before entertaining the Norwegians certainly wasn't ideal but Sloggett isn't complaining. In fact he's relishing the heavy schedule.

"We needed to focus on the Derry game and thankfully we did. That's what the squad is there for. There's nothing you can do about the fixtures, we accept that.

"We had one or two cancellations during the qualifying stages. We went four or five months without games so the more games the merrier."

Dundalk travelled to Brandywell intent on consolidating third place and edging towards securing European football again for next season. However, Sloggett didn't expect it to be an easy night at a wet and wintry Brandywell.

"We expected a tough game and they pushed us right to the wire as you would expect coming up here against one of Declan's sides

"But it was a good game and we're delighted to be coming away with the three points because we needed them. It's a big result for us.

"We were delighted to get ahead but they fought back quickly and it gave them an incentive to really get into the game.

"They really took it to us in the second half and it was touch and go in the box during the last moments. So we're just delighted to get the win."

The former UCD man played a key role in getting Dundalk to the Europa League Group stages with a superb display against Faroese side KI Klaksvik in the final qualifying round but he admits the club's league campaign upsets him.

Sloggett left Derry seeking to win the league title as well as playing in the famous European nights.

"The league has been a disappointment this year and even now looking at the league table it's upsetting because I wanted to come here and win the league.

"Listen, there's still next year for that and hopefully the year after and hopefully more will come.

"The other reason I came here was for European football like this and to have reached the group stages in my first season is phenomenal. There are only three sides in history that have done it so it's great to be a part of that."

Having got Derry out of the way, he can't wait to concentrate on Thursday's clash with Molde where he hopes to get points on the board before a daunting trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal next week.

"It's a big one, he smiled. "It's a huge game. It's the kind of one where people would say if you wanted to get anything from the group you would need to be starting off with a good result against Molde.

"We will only start preparing for that game now we've got the Derry game over with. "We will start analysing them and go from there.

"We can look forward to Thursday now and I'm sure everyone will be fighting for a place so I'm looking forward to it."