Dundalk’s European hopes hang in the balance following Derry defeat

It was a night that saw Derry City only get their second win in ten years at Oriel Park, but it kept their outside hopes alive of prising the League title away from Tallaght and stopping Shamrock Rovers winning their fourth in a row.

For Dundalk supporters there was a sense of utter deflation, with the result almost certainly leaving their hopes of getting into Europe through the league lying in ruins.

For me, those chances are now gone. Now Dundalk must turn their attention west towards the FAI cup quarter final in two weeks' time, when they take on First Division runaway leaders Galway United at Eamonn Deacy Park.

Dundalk are red hot favourites to win.

I’m not at all sure. Galway had former Finn Harps manager Olly Horgan in Oriel to do a detailed analysis on their opponents. He would have come away with some confidence that his side can knock Dundalk out of the cup. Dundalk’s defence once again let them down badly, making some very sloppy mistakes for the Derry goals.

All good teams are built around a strong defence. Dundalk just do not have that. The manager sometimes goes with a back three. On Friday he went with four at the back.

The replacement of Darren Brownley with Robbie McCourt on 61 minutes surprised me. He has been doing well in the centre of defence. Although Dundalk had to go for it at that stage, I would not have been taking off the one central defender that has the ability to stop the Derry raiders getting through.

Andy Boyle was not on the bench. The Dundalk veteran central defender picked up a calf injury during the week. He could well miss the big Galway game. John Martin has a hamstring injury as has Louie Annesley. Darragh Leahy was back in the side.

This time at centre half. He failed to live up to his usual high standards. Louie Annesley was missing at the back. The Gibraltarian international was badly missed. Hayden Muller disappointed at full back. He made a near fatal error after only three minutes when his poor back pass allowed Danny Mullen in.

Only for Nathan Shepherd Derry would have grabbed an early lead.

Johannes Yi-Koko created some good chances. But he lacks the physical presence that is needed in the engine room of the team. He would be much better deployed on the wing. Yi-koko did have a couple of top class efforts and was unlucky not to score. He was replaced by Alfie Lewis with 20 minutes remaining.

Daryl Horgan showed his usual creativity in midfield and was very unlucky not to score for Dundalk in the first half. Sam Durrant continues to catch the eye. He played well and Daniel Kelly ran all night.

But even he failed to stamp his usual authority on the game. Pat Hoban did have a good game. He was very unlucky not to get on the scoresheet through play. He did get a goal for Dundalk late in injury time from the penalty spot. At that stage, quite a number of the Dundalk supporters had headed for the exits with the game long over.

The manager Stephen O’Donnell took me by huge surprise when he said in his post match comments to the media that it was the best performance he had seen from a Dundalk side since he took over two years ago. There is no doubt that his side were very unlucky with the efforts they had on the Derry goal.

But for the City keeper Brian Maher, Dundallk could easily have got at least a point. But for the crossbar and the post too, Dundalk could have won the game. But they did not. Derry took their chances and thoroughly deserved the win. Dundalk did not. Derry’s defence gave Brian Maher enough cover to take off his great saves. Dundalk’s defence was sloppy, and that’s being kind . It failed to give Shepherd little or no cover throughout the game.

Football is a results game. Of course, it’s important to play attractive football. But if you fail to win, then the game ends in failure as far as I am concerned. No matter what O’Donnell thinks of the performance, they failed to get the points. And the result does have such profound implications that a possible failure to qualify for Europe will have a massive effect on the club’s finances going forward.

Going out to KA in the Europa Conference league was bad enough. But if the club fails to get into Europe next year, the outlook looks bleaker and bleaker.

I have said it over and over again. A team can not have a poor defence and expect success. A team can not afford to make sloppy mistakes in a key game and expect to be successful. That’s what Dundalk have been doing in the key games they have lost. Stephen Kenny’s teams would often have had to grind out results.

It might not have been the most attractive football at times. But Kenny was a winner and got the results. In fairness, most of Kenny’s football was the most attractive I have ever seen at Oriel. Jim McLaughlin won many games by playing ugly as well as good. He always had a strong defence as did Stephen Kenny.

Turlough O’Connor was the third most successful manager Dundalk ever had. His style of play was criticised by some, including me. But he built his sides from the back. Derrmot Keely did the same when he won the league in 1995. It was always about having a strong defence.

And from the defences came the midfield with strong engine rooms. Tom McNulty was the key engine room for both Turlough O’Connor and Dermot Keely. Stephen O’Donnell was one of the key players in the engine room that brought unprecedented success at Oriel as was Chris Shields.

It’s also important to try to play settled teams. O’Donnell’s teams usually have at least two changes per week from the previous week. And a team could be altered enormously with two or three substitutions by the end of the game.

The game has changed to be fair over the years. Managers are allowed to have five subs. In the 60’s to the early noughties you could only have two subs.

I personally came away from Oriel on Friday night very deflated. I have seen teams down through the years play well at times, but fail to win. Those teams were never successful. This was because the defence was poor and the teams were just not good enough.

Stephen O’Donnell to be fair has had to deal with the fact that many of his sides this season have been hit by injury.

Ryan O’Kane remained out of the team on Friday with the shin injury he picked up in Bray two weeks ago. The manager says he will be back shortly. But does that mean he will be back for the cup? I do not know. I think he will. With Andy Boyle being hit with a calf injury last Monday, and John Martin now out with a hamstring injury, along with Louie Annesley one does not know whether they will make the cup semi final.

The manager used three attacking midfielders in the centre. It proved ineffective. Daryl Horgan has been used mainly in the centre of midfield since he arrived at Oriel three weeks ago. Daryl is being played in the wrong position. He is an out-and-out winger.

If the manager had used him on the wing on Friday night I think Dundalk would have been much more effective. O’Donnell has thought otherwise. This, to me, has left a huge talent being left in a place where his natural creativity is not getting a chance. Hopefully the boss will change all that for the Galway game. When Derry City got their third goal, the crowds streamed out of Oriel in their droves. I have not seen that in a long time. My feeling coming out of Oriel was a deep worry as to what direction the club is heading.

I can only guess how difficult it is for the owners of the club to keep the show on the road financially. My guess is that the club is in a bad need of new additional investors. The loss of the Hull City investment earlier in the season was a big loss.. Why it didn’t happen I can’t say. But one theory is that they were taken aback at the hostility locally from some supporters over a takeover that they decided to go elsewhere.

But Hull must bear a major responsibility for that when one of their management staff said they would be using Dundalk as a feeder team for them. He also said they would be getting Dundalk to play the way Hull played. This would be unacceptable to any supporter. Add to this Dundalk were just coming out of the involvement of Peak 6 and how that nearly finished the club.

Hull moved to Shelbourne and the signs are certainly looking good for them. It’s early days at Tolka. But the Hull players who moved to Dublin are scoring.

On Friday night, Shels scored a late goal to beat Pats having been 1-0 down. Their European hopes remain alive.

The failure by the club to sign any league of Ireland players at the start of the season put a lot of pressure on the manager. It was not his fault. He has had to use the cards he has been dealt with.

The ground needs a total overhaul. Supporters on the ground told me toilets in the ground away from the stand are in a very poor condition. A new pitch is needed. But where is the money going to come from?

I have spoken of the need for the club to get Oriel turned over to the council. I said last week that now was the time to lobby councillors as the local elections are next May.

I was mocked by some supporters who said to me that councillors will never go for that. They asked me why I did not run for election. I said a big no. But I also said at least I am making suggestions.

It’s the only game in town to have the council take it over, like the way Tallaght Stadium was developed and is being run. For some supporters to say the council will do nothing is being totally self-defeating. Politicians move when they need something. They need your vote. They will be under serious pressure to do something in return. But the owners must also move for it too.

To be fair to them, they may already well have approached the council. Who is to know?

The club faces a mass of problems going forward. Andy Connolly has done so much for Dundalk. He helped the club rise from the ashes in 2012. Can he do that now with the different challenges that the club faces going forward? Andy has been hugely courageous. I hope he can engineer a resurrection of the club facility wise as we move towards the end of the season.

As for the Derry gane, they took the lead three minutes from the break when Will Patching ran 35 yards into the Dundalk box with ease. Patching had slipped the ball to Paul McMullan on his run into the Dundalk box. The Derry midfielder got a great pass back. Patching slammed the ball to the net. The ball had clearly hit the arm of a Dundalk player in the box. The defence seemed to freeze waiting for the penalty to be given.

One Dundalk player pointed to his arm to the referee as if to say he should have given Derry a penalty. But Patching, my man of the match along with goalkeeper Brian Maaher, got the goal showing so many weaknesses in the Dundalk defence and midfield.

The game was killed off as a contest two minutes after the break. Will Patching had a shot parried well by Nathan Shepherd. Once again the defence was poor as there was no one there to clear the ball away. Ben Doherty had missed a great chance before the break. This time he made no mistake shooting home. Brian Maher took off an excellent save from Johannes Yi-Koko header. He met a Durrant cross. Yi-Koko’s effort was bound for the net but cleared.

It was Yi-Koko again on 60 minutes as he rattled the Derry crossbar. Pat Hoban followed up with an effort that was blocked on the line. Six minutes later Pat Hoban had a great header. Shane McEleney cleared off the line again.

Derry nearly scored an own goal on 70 minutes when Shane Colin tried to clear the ball at the near post. Maher did so well to keep the ball out.

Derry got their third goal on 77 minutes. Daniel Kelly fouled Will Patching in the box. Patching made no mistake from the spot. Robbie Benson returned from injury and came on as a sub on 75 minutes. He replaced Sam Durrant.

With a minute remaining Robbie McCourt fired in a great effort. Brian Maher was equal to it with another terrific save.

Dundalk were awarded a penalty 6 minutes into injury time. Pat Hoban made no mistake. The stats back up Stephen O’Donnell’s praise of Dundalk’s performance in one way. They had six shots on target to Derry’s four. But Dundalk only struck once for a goal. Derry got three. Dundalk had 13 shots off target to Derry’s five.

Dundalk had 72 per cent of the possession while Derry had only 28 per cent. Nathan Shepherd took off one save. But the defence conceded three goals. Brian Maher saved five attempts.

Thus it was a good performance from Dundalk in one way. But it was Derry’s sheer will to succeed that kept Dundalk at bay and also made them look so ruthless for the goals. Dundalk just could not curtail Derry when they came at them. The midfield and the defence need strengthening.

Dundalk have no game next weekend due to the fact that the Republic Of Ireland are in action. A week later it’s away to Galway United in the cup. Dundalk look set to finish lower down the table than they did last year.

Stephen O’Donnell accepted his side gave away some very poor goals. He said it has been the story of their season. The Dundalk boss said that his side did not really have to withstand any serious pressure from Derry.

He says the goals Derry got were in isolated moments. He added if his side were not clinical, they still should not be giving away three goals.

He accepted that Dundalk’s route of getting into Europe looks very slim now. But again he says he was happy with the performance. I just cannot agree with Stephen when he said that. City scored in isolated moments. Derry also had a number of clear cut chances that they missed. Had they scored from them, they would have won by more.

Derry manager Ruaidhri Higgins says it was a huge win for his team. He said that the win in Oriel was outstanding. Ruaidhri said that he thought that up to the time Derry were 2-0 up they deserved to be in front. He accepted that Derry did carry a little luck on Friday given the way Dundalk dominated.

But he said his side got three top class goals and always looked very dangerous on the counter attack. He said when you go two up at Oriel the subconscious wants you to hang on to what you have and then get you thinking to drop deeper and deeper. Ruaidhri says Brian Maher had made four or five incredible saves. He accepted Derry did ride their luck at times. But he pointed out that up to the point Derry went two up his side were thoroughly in control. He said that no team would come to Oriel Park and have it all plain sailing.

It was great to see former Dundalk academy player Emmanuel Adebagaye score again for the Norwich under 21 team. And former Dundalk fullback Lewis Macari has signed for Notts County. On Saturday night, Galway went down to a rare defeat against Longford. But Dundalk need not read anything into that. The first Division leaders will be waiting for Dundalk at Eamonn Deacy park in 2two weeks time fully prepared.

Take care of yourselves during the week. The next ten days will determine the future of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny as Republic of Ireland manager.

I will talk to you all again next week. Be careful out there.