Dream week for Dundalk as they take two cup scalps

It’s been a wonderful week for Dundalk, winning their game in Europe and qualifying for the next round.

That was last Thursday. On Sunday, they knocked League Champions Shamrock Rovers out of the FAI Cup with the most exciting game of football I’ve seen in years at Oriel.

They did it with ten men as Paul Doyle was sent off on thirty-one minutes. They took the lead on twenty-three minutes when Ryan O’Kane put in a corner from the right.

The ball came to Hayden Muller who fired a screamer to the net. Dundalk had no Pat Hoban or Louis Annesley as both have injuries and are doubtful for the big European game against KA in Iceland on Thursday.

Greg Sloggett, Daniel Kelly and Conor Malley were dropped to the bench with Alfie Lewis, Robbie McCourt and John Martin. Both Hayden Muller and Paul Doyle started.

Rovers named their strongest team. My heart dropped when I saw the Dundalk team. As with all the changes, I could not see Dundalk winning with what I thought was a weakened team.

But I was totally wrong. This Dundalk team was magnificent. It reminded me of the great days under Jim McLaughlin in the 1970’s and 80’s.

Dundalk’s win was against a side who have won the cup 25 times. This is more than any other League of Ireland club.

When Rovers came at Dundalk in waves after the sending off, Dundalk  slammed the door firmly on them.

Nathan Shepherd was magnificent. Andy Boyle was sensational. They were all magnificent. Hayden Muller’s goal was his first ever playing for any team. He will go down in Dundalk soccer folklore for years to come.

Hayden Muller says Stephen O’Donnell got it exactly right after the sending off when they went 4-4-1. He said that Dundalk did not just sit in. He said they also went on the counterattack.

Rovers had a vast amount of chances. They looked like a tired team. They also seemed to be a team that has come to the end of the road. Of course they have not.

Stephen Bradley will reignite this side as they go in search of a league title and a good run in Europe. The draw for the third round of the Qualifying stage of the Europa Conference League took place last night Monday. The draw for the second round of the FAI cup takes place this evening on 2FM at six O'clock. 

Stephen O’Donnell flew out early on Monday morning to Iceland. He attended a league game involving KA last night.

But one question the owners of the club must answer. Why have they failed to give Nathan Shepherd a two year contract? Shamrock Rovers could do a pre contract deal with him tomorrow. Nathan Shepherd must be kept at Oriel full stop.

I interviewed him following the Magpies game on Thursday. The interview was just about the game. But I did bring up the contract. See the details below. I asked him if anybody from the club approached him recently about a new contract. He said no. I was flummoxed.  

Dundalk are on a great run now. It’s like a dream. Dundalk supporters please enjoy it while it lasts. I would love to see Dundalk play Derry city in the final. They are the club who signed five of our key players in pre-contract deals. They did nothing wrong. But I think Dundalk would beat them. It would be sweet revenge.

It’s not often that Dundalk collect €300,000 in one night. But that they did last Thursday night when they beat Gibraltarian side Bruno’s Magpies by 3-1 in the second leg of the first qualifying round of the Europa Conference League at Oriel Park.

This brings to €550,000 the amount that Dundalk have already collected in the competition. It was a massive win for Dundalk financially. But once again it was a game Dundalk played in fits and starts.

It was also yet another game where Dundalk’s defence displayed their vulnerabilities. It was a totally different game to the Rovers game on Sunday.

On Thursday they left me wondering that if they come up against a stronger side, they could have pushed them to the edge. Indeed, they could well have been beaten.

But they got the win, and that’s what mattered on the night.

It’s also amazing that Dundalk were playing their first European game at Oriel since 2019.

On Thursday night, Stephen O’Donnell’s charges will be back in Iceland for the second round. They play KA who really impressed in the first round, so much so that they are favourites to beat Dundalk over the two legs.

Thursday’s first leg is being played at the home of Fram Reykjavik. KA’s stadium is in the very north of Iceland in Akureyri. The capital Reykjavik where the Dundalk game takes place has a population of 122,853 people.

KA were founded in 1928 and have won the Icelandic League title just once. That was in 1980. Last season they finished second in the Icelandic League. They have moved the game to the Icelandic capital as they are building a brand new state of the art stadium. The game has a kick off time of 7pm Irish time.

KA are currently 9th in the Icelandic league table. They beat Welsh side  Connah’s Quay Nomads on a 4-0 aggregate score in their first round tie.

They won both legs home and away by 2-0. The Welsh team are known fondly as the Quay. People in Dundalk would say there is only one place known as the Quay and that is in Dundalk. This part of Dundalk has produced many great players including Willy Crawley and David Crawley

David is the last Dundalk born captain to have collected the FAI cup when he directed his team to a 2-1 win over Bohemians in 2002.

Dundalk were already relegated going into the final. Sad fact is that Dundalk had to play their European game in Tolka Park. As part of the price to use the stadium, Dundalk had to let their full back go to Shels as a transfer. For Shelbourne, it was a shrewd move as David went on to win league and cup medals with the Dublin team.

KA drew with the Icelandic champions Breidablik 3-3 in a recent league game. The league Champions sent Shamrock Rovers crashing out of the First Qualifying round of the Champions League on a 3-0 aggregate score last Tuesday. Breidablik are an excellent side.

If KA can be used as a measure of quality in comparison to Breidablik then one can see that Dundalk will have to play much better on Thursday night than they did against Bruno’s Magpies. Dundalk’s match analyst, Dom Corrigan was in Wales to see KA win 2-0. He has come back with a report in which the full Dundalk coaching staff have watched them on video.

Stephen O’Donnell has no fears of going back to Reykjavik. He says it will be a great experience for the players who are only in their first European campaign. He added that it was a very exciting time at Oriel at the moment being in Europe.

Remarkably, Stephen O’Donnell had no changes in his side from the team that started against Magpies the week before. The Dundalk boss also only made only three substitutions over the 2 legs. This has to be a clear sign that the Dundalk boss just could risk none of those on the bench, as many are still recovering from injuries.

Gibraltar international Louie Annesley told me after the game everyone was delighted to get the win. Louie felt that it could have been a better performance from Dundalk. But he added that the most important issue was that they got the result.

Louie says Dundalk worked on a lot of set pieces with Brian Gartland in training. This, he said, was exactly where Dundalk’s first goal came from.

Louie says Ryan O’Kane showed great aggressiveness when he was able to play the ball in for John Martin to score. He said the Magpies continued to play three up front, looking to get back into the game. This, he says, allowed Dundalk to push forward and get the winning goal.

Greg Sloggett said that the Magpies did cause problems for Dundalk in Gibralter and also did the same in the first half at Oriel.

He said that when Dundalk got the third goal seven minutes from time, it was only then that the team could relax and soak up the atmosphere.

The Dundalk midfielder says that John Martin is a top class player and had a pivotal role in Dundalk getting through when he came on as a sub.

Greg says that the Magpies were throwing caution to the wind when John got the second goal by playing three up front. He says they will prepare well for the KA game in Iceland. 

While Greg was playing for Dundalk in Europe his girlfriend Chloe Mostaki was in the Republic of Ireland panel earlier in the day playing in the Women’s World Cup in Sydney against the hosts Australia.

Ireland lost the game by 1-0 to an Australian penalty. Greg says the women’s team put on a great performance. He says it was hard for the Irish to be undone by a penalty in the nature that it was. He says it was just a clumsy tackle, but that was the nature of football. Greg says he spoke to Chloe on the phone shortly after the game. He says Chloe was fine. She had goosebumps for the first ten minutes of the game.

This was especially true with the Irish National Anthem and the atmosphere in the stadium in front of more than 76,000 supporters.

Chloe is immensely proud of the girls that played. Greg said that Chloe is ready to come into the team if called upon. He says that she is raring to go.

Residents in the North were unable to see the game on RTE as the signal was blocked, as the station did not have the rights to show the Irish games in the North.

This is a disgrace. Yes, ITV have the rights to show the games in the United Kingdom. But there are many in the North who were left very angry that they could not watch a senior game involving the Republic of Ireland Women’s Team on an Irish channel.

The fact that the game was blocked to many in the North hits the marketing of the World cup tournament. Women’s football is gaining more and more popularity. The standard of soccer displayed by the women from all countries has been magnificent.

I was really impressed with the performance of the Irish last Thursday. They were very unlucky. I am amazed this tournament has not caught the imagination of the Irish public here at home also.

Far more attention was given to the last World cup in Qatar. Well, in the future it will be women’s soccer getting more and more attention. The skill and professionalism is top class.

Incidentally, Daniel Kelly the Dundalk midfielder is a first cousin of Republic of Ireland international Amber Barrett. So the Dundalk connection with the Irish team is very strong.

Goalkeeper Nathan Shepherd says the result for Dundalk against the Magpies was massive for the club. He says it was great to be in the next round and that he looked forward to it.

He says the trip to Iceland should be great. The idea of seeing 24 hours daylight was going to be immense. Nathan says Dundalk did make things a little difficult for themselves in the game. But in the end they got the win.

He says that John Martin coming on as a sub in the second half inspired much more enthusiasm and confidence into the team. Nathan says Dundalk created more chances in the second half. He felt that they played more directly. He felt that there was much more intensity to Dundalk’s game, and they were able to put the Magpies under more pressure.

I asked Nathan if the club had approached him on the matter of a new contract, as now there is nothing to stop a club coming in with an offer to Nathan and agreeing a pre contract deal.

Nathan told me the answer was no. They had not come near him about a new contract for next season. Nathan says he believes that there is plenty of time to get the issue sorted. I asked Nathan does he wants to stay at Oriel. He says he is very happy at Oriel playing games. He wants to do very well in Europe and help Dundalk get further up the table.

Personally, I just can’t get my head around this issue at all. As I understand from other sources independent of Nathan the amount of an increase in income he has asked for is miniscule. If Dundalk lose Nathan at the end of the season this would have been a massive mistake by the owners. If they have a different story I just wish they would come out and say it. Nathan is a top class player who deserves a two-year contract. There can be no excuses.

Meanwhile Dundalk man Emmanuel Adegboyega has signed professionally with Drogheda United in the past two weeks.

Manney played for the Dundalk under 19 academy team and made a  number of first team appearances last season.

Manney is also a full time student at Dublin City University where he his midway through his Sports Science Degree.

Manney has formed a strong partnership in the centre of the Drogheda defence with Conor Keeley. He told the Irish Sun newspaper the first team partnership he has formed at the heart of the Drogheda defence is a justification for his decision to leave Dundalk at the start of the season.

He says the first team football is a massive step up from playing in the Under 19 academy football set up. Manney says that he did not think he was going to get the first team minutes at Dundalk that he is getting in Drogheda. He said that getting a chance of regular first team football with Drogheda was an opportunity he had to grab. 

To be fair to Dundalk, they did a lot to keep Manney at Oriel. He was offered a professional contract at the club and could continue his studies at DCU. But the Dundalk youngster obviously felt that he would not get much first team football.

So he went to Drogheda and signed amateur forms. He is a highly talented player. It’s ironic that Dundalk have never been able to recover from the loss of Mark Connolly to Derry City last season. Manney could well have sorted that problem.

It’s easy to criticise. The Dundalk youngster saw a chance of first team football and grabbed it. Dundalk were taken aback when they got word that Manney had signed for Drogheda as they thought they were still negotiating with him.

Dundalk should learn from this and ensure they sign the most talented youngsters they have on their books when logistically possible. I really hope he has a great career in soccer. He wants to get playing at the highest level. I have no doubt he can make it. 

Please have a happy and safe week and remember to always be careful out there.