VIDEO: Kenny insists Dundalk up for title battle

Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny is aware of the magnitude of the task his side face in their efforts to retain their Airtricity Premier Division title, but believes it's a challenge they can meet.

Kenny's men pipped Cork City to the league last year in a dramatic title race that went to the last day when the Lilywhites overcame City 2-0 to claim the silverware.

However that success has already been consigned to history by Kenny who is only looking forward now and he is confident his side can mount another major challenge.

"The Work ethic in the group is still high. There is a great opportunity for the players to really improve."

"We are excited by that because we understand the difficulty of it. As a club Dundalk have won the league with some great teams and manager and done it 10 times. But they've never retained it over the years," he told RTÉ Sport.

"The reason for that is the degree of difficulty in doing that. There has been no complacency in the ranks at all. In the pre-season games you have just feel there is a hunger within the group of players.

"They have had the taste with their first trophy as the league cup and then the title and so many brilliant memories that they want more of that. They want to continue to work hard so hopefully we can."

Kenny insists that he will not allow complacency to become a factor with Dundalk and that while his side will remember their triumph of last year, they won't be distracted by it.

"There are two sides to it. One is that it can stay with you and you want to create more of that, but you have to move on as well. You can't dwell on it and I think we haven't dwelt on it.

"The Work ethic in the group is still high. There is a great opportunity for the players to really improve. Five of the six players that were in the team of the season were 23 or under.

"We have a young side with the ability to improve and they want to get better. That is important. We are working hard to get better," he added.

Dundalk have however lost one of their best players of last season in Pat Hoban, who moved to England to join Oxford United.

Hoban was the league's joint top scored with 20 goals last season but Kenny believes those goals will be replaced by players throughout the squad.

"[Pat] had such meteoric rise in coming from Mervue and getting 20 league goals last season. It was terrific. We had 17 different scores in all competitions last year, I don't know if that has happened before or will happen again but when I look at our squad every single player is capable of scoring.

"If they haven't scored I want to know why after a period of time because every player is capable. The goals come from everywhere and that is what we are focused on."

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