Dundalk boss Stephen Kenny has warned the champions they need to improve despite making a perfect start to their SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title defence.
The Lilywhites picked apart Finn Harps at Oriel Park on Friday night, with new boy Patrick McEleney grabbing a goal on his home debut in a 3-0 win, but Kenny wants more from his side as a the hectic early season schedule picks up pace.
"There’s room for improvement," he told RTÉ Sport. "We’ve Wexford on Monday and Cork on Friday so it’s a busy week for us. We’ll have to get better.
“We’re happy to win the game, of course. I don’t think it was our best performance ever, but we created a lot of chances on the night and scored three goals. You have to be happy with that. It looks like there’s a lot goals in the team. We’ve players who can score from different areas."
In the first of three games in the space of seven days, Kenny utilised his squad, dropping Stephen O’Donnell, Brian Gartland and John Mountney to the bench and summoning Chris Shields, Sean Gannon and Darren Meenan.
“We needed to calm down a bit and show that extra bit of composure." - Stephen Kenny
Goals from Paddy Barrett, McEleney and Andy Boyle justified the changes, but the former Derry City and Shamrock Rovers manager wants slicker, more cohesive football from his outfit.
“We needed to calm down a bit and show that extra bit of composure. Some players were trying a bit too hard on that first half. We needed to relax a bit.
“We could have got more but at the same time Finn Harps are a team with a terrific attitude, very good spirit, they came out with a gameplan. We found them difficult opponents but we trusted ourselves to find a solution and to try to win the game. They’ll be difficult opponents for most teams.”
Finn Harps boss Ollie Horgan accepted his team just didn't possess the quality to really trouble their hosts, and is braced for a long, unforgiving campaign.
The newly promoted Donegal men started with a win against Derry last week, but Horgan is under no illusions about the size of the task at hand.
"We've no complaints. There's a gulf in standard," he said. "There'll be a lot of places between us and Dundalk in the league. We'll take our defeat.
"We've got to lick our wounds and try and prepare for Shamrock Rovers on Monday. It's relentless. It's more physical, faster stronger. Maybe that's why we've picked up more injuries.
"But we know what it is. People are saying I'm playing things down but it is what it is, there's a massive gap there. You saw first hand tonight, there's a massive gap between the best sides and the worst sides in this division. We need everybody fit to try to compete in it but unfortunately that's not the case at the moment."
