O'Donnell delighted to help silence doubters

Dundalk captain Stephen O'Donnell insisted that his side's dramatic league winning 2-0 victory over Cork City was the perfect response those who suggested the Lilywhites didn't have the nerve to claim the Airtricty Premier Division.

It was O'Donnell's second-half goal that set Stephen Kenny's side on their way as he neatly fired home from just outside the penalty area before a Brian Gartland strike with eight minutes to go gave Dundalk a victory that saw them take the league title from Cork by two points.

The Oriel Park outfit had held a three point lead over Cork with three games remaining however draws against Shamrock Rovers and Bray Wanderers allowed the Rebels to take a one point lead going into the final game, with Dundalk needing a win to overtake their rivals at the top.

However O'Donnell claimed that the players were always confident they could get the win they needed against Cork and were happy to ignore those who were 'questioning their character'.

"It's a great feeling, I'm delighted now. We drew our last two games before tonight and to win it like this, you're never going to get a night like this again," he told RTÉ Sport.

"We drew with Shamrock Rovers, a good side, a strong side and Pat Fenlon has done a good job with them and we thought we played decent enough. Last Friday against Bray it was a monsoon so I wouldn't have put any heed in that but people were questioning our character.

"We knew we had a good performance in us and we have very good players and if we played to our potential we'd more than likely win the game."

Indeed the Dundalk skipper suggested that the knowledge only a win would do for his side may have played into their favour.

"We're at our best when we're playing, when we're attacking so I think if we had the benefit of needing a draw we might have been saying 'should we go forward, should we defend?'. We might have been in a grey area but there was no grey area, it was black and white, we had to win tonight."

"Cork are a good side, they're always going to have chances. I should have scored in the first half and there were a couple of wayward efforts. But we knew, especially near the end of the first half, we were grinding them down and banging on the door.

"It was a great boost to score so early into the second half and it set us on the road and we didn't really look back. They had a couple of chances, a header just flashed wide, but I think we were deserved winners in the end."

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