Dundalk captain Stephen O’Donnell said his team only had themselves to blame for their FAI Cup penalty shootout defeat to Cork City.
The Lilywhites broke the deadlock in extra-time when towering Dane Niclas Vemmelund thumped home a 104th-minute header.
That looked like it would be enough to sink the league champions but sub Achille Campion capitalised on a sloppy offside line to fire past Gary Rogers and bring the game to spot-kicks.
Michael Duffy’s miss, followed by Kieran Sadlier’s successful kick, kept the trophy on Leeside but O’Donnell said his team-mates didn’t do enough to close the game out when they were on top.
"Not being able to see it out is very disappointing," he said. "Once you go one up in tight games like this, you have to see it out. There’s no other way about it.
"We have to be better on the ball. When we got the ball we just kicked it back to them. It was a bad goal to concede. You’ve got to be able to keep the ball and kill the game.
"The whole team has to create more when we are dominating the ball. That’s all of us.
"When you’re dominating the ball like that you’ve got to score a couple of goals. We didn’t. And we probably didn’t create enough clear-cut chances when we had the ball."
Interview with disappointed Man of the Match Gary Rogers - "The rivalry will go on" pic.twitter.com/2wY8w0MIOv
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) November 5, 2017
Man of the match Rogers pulled off a sensational double save in the first half and another extraordinary stop at the end of normal time but he was left frustrated by Campion’s equaliser.
"I got a foot on it, but that’s the way it goes," he said. "It crept through. Unfortunately, with penalties, you never know. It wasn’t to be.
"There’s no good way to lose it really. The fact we were one-nil up and we looked like we were doing well in the game and really curtailed them. They got their chance and took it."
