Tallaght defeat a missed opportunity to solidify Dundalk's European challenge

It was a grim result for Dundalk on Friday night after they were beaten by Shamrock Rovers 1-0 at Tallaght Stadium A goal by Roberto Lopes after 62 minutes was enough to end any faint hopes the Oriel Park men had of getting back into the title race.

More importantly their hopes of getting into Europe via the League took a massive blow and left them four points off fourth placed Bohemians. Bohs also have a much better goal difference, which in effect means they are at least five points behind.

Even at that, fourth place in the league may not be enough to get them into Europe. Only the first three places will guarantee a team a European spot.

But fourth place has allowed an extra team into the European stable over the past number of years. It really depends on how the league positions finally pan out.

For Dundalk it's an absolute must they get back into Europe. Failure to do so would see them automatically losing the €300,000 prize money for playing in the first round alone. 

Dundalk of course can win the cup and qualify for Europe. However this is very much a hit and miss route of getting into Europe. You need luck to win the cup. Who you draw and whether it's home or away also play its part.

The Lilywhites are away to run away First Division leaders Galway United in the quarter finals. This will not be an easy game for Dundalk at all.

The bookies are making Dundalk certs. I am not. In fact, I would go as far as saying that I think Galway have an excellent chance of putting Dundalk out of the cup. 

The Rovers Game

Stephen O'Donnell made two changes to the side that knocked Bray out of the cup the week before. Hayden Muller and Greg Sloggett returned to the first 11. Paul Doyle returned to the bench while Ryan O'Kane missed the game with a shin injury.

They lined out with Nathan Shepperd in goals. Louie Annesley, Darren Brownlie and Archie Davies made up the back three. Johannes Yli-Kokko, Greg Sloggett, Conor Malley and Hayden Muller formed the four midfield. Daryl Horgan, John Martin and Daniel Kelly were the three forward players.

Pat Hoban was once again left on the bench. He has a knee injury. But he did replace John Martin a minute after Rovers went ahead on 54 minutes. Alfie Lewis came on at the same time in place of Greg Sloggett. Sam Durrant replaced Johannes Yli-Kokko on 75 minutes.

The final two substitutions came on 81 minutes when Cameron Elliott replaced Conor Malley and Robbie McCourt replaced Hayden Muller.

The stats show clearly how well Dundalk did in the game. They had four shots on target but failed to score. Rovers had four shots on target also, but scored the goal that won the game. Rovers had nine shots off target, while Dundalk had 6.

The Hoops had 57 per cent of the possession while Dundalk had 43. Nathan Shepherd pulled off three saves, while Rovers’ Alan Mannus made four.

The result means the Lilywhites’ barren spell of winning games in Tallaght goes on. They have not won there since 2019. They have lost four times at the home of Rovers since Stephen O'Donnell took over as boss and have yet to score a goal there.

The picture coming from Tallaght on Friday night showed a Dundalk side that created an abundance of chances. But they were punished severely for that lack of a cutting edge when on 63 minutes Roberto Lopes bagged a goal.

It was a goal that should never have happened. Dundalk's marking in the defence was terrible, as they handed the winner to the Hoops on a plate. 

O’Donnell

After the game Stephen O'Donnell says he was deeply frustrated to be leaving Tallaght with nothing, given the effort his side put in and the chances they created.

The Dundalk boss says he thought his side should have been going in 1-0 up at half time given the number of chances they had in the first half.

He stressed an opposing team just cannot afford to come to Tallaght, have so many chances missed still hope to come away with a win. The fact is that a team that had so many opportunities, as the Oriel Park men did, will eventually be punished for their errors.

And for Dundalk, this came from a set piece. O’Donnell said Lopez normally goes close to the near post and that is where he scores from. The fact that Dundalk had so many back for the corner, but failed to cut out the Lopez threat for the goal was particularly disappointing.

The Galwegian thought his troops played some really good football, but he did not think there would be any moaning about the pitch after Rovers got the win.

The Hoops defeat in the cup and the league recently was blamed on the pitch in Oriel by some. But the Dundalk boss rightly said his side had proven by the way they played in Tallaght that nobody could say it was the artificial surface at Oriel that was the cause of Rovers two losses in Louth.

The Dundalk boss was 100 per cent correct, as the Lilywhites were the better side in both the cup and the league games at Oriel.

Missed Opportunity

Rovers looked like an aging side for almost the entire 90 minutes, just as they did in their two recent defeats against Dundalk in the league and cup. The Dubliners, to all intents and purposes, won ugly. But they got the three points and that was what mattered.

Dundalk amazingly sat back and let the Hoops come at them for the first half hour. They had chances and failed to take them. But it was a dangerous game Dundalk were playing, as they could easily have been caught out at any time.

Graham Burke was always a threat in the first half. But Rovers man of the match to me was Dylan Watts. He was top class from the set pieces throughout the game.

Burke came close early on with an early effort outside the box. Rory Gaffney was excellent too and was always a thorn in Dundalk's side.

He had the ball in the net from a Watts free on 12 minutes but was adjudged to have been offside. Liam Burt and Graham Burke came close again as Dundalk allowed Rovers to come at them. 

The momentum all changed from the 22nd minute. Archie Davies got down the right with his pinpoint cross found John Martin at the far post. It would only have taken a stronger header to score. Instead it caused no problems for Alan Manus, as Martin amazingly headed wide.

This was the first of a number of chances the Dundalk striker had. He had an off night, and this really contributed to Dundalk's failure to really penetrate the Rovers goal, even if Dundalk had chances only yards from goal.

Daniel Kelly sprung into life along with Daryl Horgan. and Johannes Yli-Kokko all becoming very dangerous. Yli-kokko dug the ball out from under his feet. He set up Daniel Kelly. He had the goal at his mercy. Three Rovers defenders threw themselves in front of the shot and blocked it.

All the time during this match I just had the feeling it was not going to be Dundalk's night as they just lacked the killer instinct they normally have with Pat Hoban.

Shamrock Rovers were the better side in the second half. Daryl Horgan swung a corner in from the left. John Martin''s weak shot gave Alan Mannus no problem. Rovers looked to be in for a goal when Liam Burt put Dylan Watts in. He shot wide from close range.

Rovers thought they should have been ahead when Liam Burt's free setup Gafney. He shot home. The goal was disallowed for offside. But only just. The winning goal came on 53 minutes when Dylan Watts' corner was headed home at the near post by Roperto Lopes.

It was an awful goal to give away. He had a free header. The defence was terrible and left Lopes totally on his own. Pat Hoban was on as a sub straight after the goal and replaced John Martin.

Greg Sloggett at midfield was also taken off, with Alfie Lewis put on. Hoban never stamped his authority on the game and Alfie Lewis was always chasing the game. 

Daniel Kelly got in on a one-on-one with Alan Manus. He should have either passed to his other strikers or taken the ball around the Rovers keeper. Instead, he tried to Lob Mannus. It was a poor effort that Mannus had no problem dealing with.

Rovers player Burke was furious when he was subbed on 71 minutes. But his manager Stephen Bradley made the decisions that won them the game.

Dundalk did have further efforts, but in the end they drew a blank. Sam Durrant did very well when he came on late in the game. But it was Dundalk who lost and Rovers thoroughly deserved the win.

Stephen O'Donnell spent the night running up and down his area. He was fuming when Pat Hoban was clearly fouled late in the game. The referee gave the free to Rovers. The Galwegian got a yellow card.

Unsettled Team?

I have worries about this Dundalk team. How is it that Stephen O'Donnell never plays a settled team? It sees changes every week. And how can one get continuity when the boss makes five changes during the game?

So not only is the starting 11 changed from the previous week, it can also be changed considerably during a game. Dundalk need to play with a settled team. Stephen Kenny rarely changed his first 11 and that was the secret of their success.

And one has to ask are Andy Boyle and Darragh Leahy just dropped or are they injured. I can only guess they are injured as Louie Annesley took a bad knock with 14 minutes remaining. There was no movement from the bench.

Surely Andy Boyle or indeed Darragh Leahy should have been plucked from the bench if they had no injuries. If they are injured, why are they on the bench? They should not be.

Ryan O'Kane was left out on Friday as he has a shin injury. At first it was thought he would only be out for a week or so. But it's feared the injury is worse than was first feared. If the reports I am hearing are true, then Ryan could be out for a long spell.

TV Coverage

During the week details were published of most of the remaining games of the season that will be broadcast live on TV. Dundalk's game with Pat's will be broadcast live from Inchicore.

But not one of the games will come from either Oriel or Weaver's Park in Drogheda. I tweeted during the week that it was a disgrace that Louth had been overlooked for the entire season, with not one live game being broadcast by the TV networks.

I know and accept that the RTE camera crew did say to me after one game they covered live last year that they would not be back until the constant use of flares and smoke bombs was sorted.

The club have got this largely under control now. There is no reason now why the State Broadcaster nor Virgin Media TV cannot show a game live from Oriel. Daniel McDonnell, the Chief Soccer writer with the Irish Independent tweeted back at me that the decision may well help to focus minds.

I brought up the issue of what was going to happen if the two teams got to the semifinals of the cup and did it mean that they would not be shown live from each of the Louth venues.

It was an open question. I threw the issue out on the internet. Daniel replied to me saying that of course the semi-finals would both be shown. But he then said that he did not believe showcasing what he called substandard stadiums was a good look.

In his opinion, by not showing stadiums like Oriel or Weaver's Park on TV, it should be the incentive for both of the Louth clubs to finally upgrade their grounds and get them back on out screens.

Now I agree that Oriel Park is not the Aviva and have been a huge critic of the club for not showing any effort, at least in public, to start doing something about the ground. It has its faults, many very serious. But so do most of the League of Ireland grounds in the rest of the country.

I cannot see Oriel Park undergoing any major redevelopment within the next few years. Therefore, does this mean Oriel will not have a TV network broadcasting any live games for the next few years? Most of the grounds in the League are substandard. And many of them are in Dublin.

So to follow Daniel's logic then, does he mean these Dublin clubs and other clubs should not be allowed to have live games broadcast from these stadiums.

The answer is of course the games will be on TV. RTE and Virgin Media would need to sort out the issue of ignoring coming to both Drogheda and Dundalk.

This is an issue which both Drogheda and Dundalk should take up with the FAI and pressurise them to ensure there will be a return to the broadcasting of live network TV games as soon as possible.

As the season heads to its finale I am disappointed the owners have noy given the fans and the people of Dundalk any idea what their intentions are in relation to ground development or indeed their continued involvement in the club. With local elections set for next May it's the time to start lobbying politicians. But the owners must take the lead by issuing even a simple message on the club website and in the match programme.

I said this a year ago. Sadly, nothing has happened in relation to issuing a simple message to supporters from the owners.

Have a great week. Derry City are in Oriel next Friday.

It should be a cracking game. Look after yourselves and please remember to be careful out there.