The Commentary Box: Dundalk keep European hopes alive

Dundalk picked up three valuable points to maintain their very slim chances of getting into Europe next season when they beat Drogheda United 3-1 in the Louth Derby.

Dundalk can clinch the spot if Pat’s were to win the cup and finish third with Dundalk finishing 4th.

With four games remaining, the Oriel Park side can still retrieve something from a miserable season. All they can do is keep themselves in contention by winning.

The victory on Friday gave Dundalk a clean sweep over Drogheda in the four league games this season, both home and away. Stephen O’Donnell’s men have now scored eight goals in two games. They hammered Cork 5-0  eight days ago at Oriel.

Dundalk deserved their 3-1 victory, but once again slack marking in the Dundalk defence could easily have seen Drogheda come away with a result.

Stephen O’Donnell made two changes to the team that played against Cork.

Robbie Benson returned to the fullback slot having missed the Cork game through suspension.

John Martin dropped to the bench. Darren Brownley was back at centre half in place of Hayden Muller. Dundalk looked much slicker going forward than they have of late. Paul Doyle and Daryl Horgan excelled in midfield.

Sam Durrant and Daniel Kelly were excellent on the wing. Johannes Yi-Koko also did well.

In defence, Dundalk struggled at times. Archie Davis was once again my man of the match. He gives steel to the defence and is majestic going forward. Daryl Horgan is growing more and more into the team and was always a threat.

Paul Doyle also added much needed steel to the Dundalk engine room in midfield. He has been hit badly by injury this season. Next season he can contribute majorly for Stephen O’Donnell if he can remain injury free. Nathan Shepherd had a solid game in goals, preventing Drogheda from scoring on occasions with some good goalkeeping.

Sadly, the game was marred by some off the field incidents, which I am sure will see both clubs being hit with fines. The pyrotechnic display from both sets of supporters filled the air with toxic fumes before and during the games.

Anybody with respiratory difficulties would have struggled to breathe as the stadium was engulfed in smoke from the start. Firemen were on hand to put out flares thrown onto the pitch by Drogheda supporters.

The game was nearly abandoned when a warning went out midway through the first half that missiles were being thrown onto the pitch within the first 15 minutes of the game on the same side where the fourth official was located.

The warning was clearly being aimed at the Drogheda United fans, as they were located on this side of the pitch. But the display of flares at Oriel will also hamper any chance of national broadcasting TV stations coming to Oriel for a live game. Last season TV crews from RTE told me they would not be back to cover games as long as the pyrotechnics were on display.

The Drogheda supporters heeded the warning about the missiles and the game was allowed to continue. However, after the games ugly scenes developed after a tiny group of Drogheda fans made a charge at barriers separating them from the Youth Development centre and where Dundalk fans had been located during the game.

Some Drogheda fans claimed that a small group of Dundalk fans got close to them at their end of the ground. The Drogheda fans say that this tiny minority of Dundalk fans hurled abuse at them. The security fencing ensured Drogheda fans could not get near the YDC or any Dundalk fans remaining.

However, they threw flares over the barriers. One landed at my foot. 

A second person was reportedly injured. That remains subject to confirmation. I had great sympathy for the Dundalk security staff and the vast majority of Drogheda United supporters. Drogheda is a great club. Local derbies in the Premier Division have a great atmosphere. It’s a special game. There were close to 3,000 supporters at the game.

The two clubs have always worked closely together on security at derby games. Hopefully scenes can be stamped out.

Hopefully both clubs can work together with the gardai to ensure that such scenes seen on Friday night can be eradicated. I have witnessed violence at other League of Ireland games involving different teams other than Dundalk and Drogheda.

The media always seem to play this down. It’s been done at other grounds this season where despite crowd trouble happening, the media just will not cover it. Well, I will expose it wherever I see it happening. The thugs who cause such trouble must be identified and not allowed near a football ground for years.

There are so called supporters of Dundalk FC who are every bit as troublesome as supporters belonging to other clubs given a chance. I have no doubt that some Dundalk supporters did get close to Drogheda supporters after the final whistle on Friday.

It may, as Drogheda supporters claim, have sparked off the post match trouble. But the tiny minority of Drogheda supporters who caused most of the trouble looked like they came looking to cause some chaos. The FAI must investigate what happened.

Drogheda were on top in the early stages of the game. Striker Kyle Robinson who replaced Ryan Brennan on 22 minutes was outstanding. He had a shot across the face of goal on 25 minutes that beat Nathan Shepherd.

The ball came back off the inside of the butt of the post. But Robinson was duly rewarded for just three minutes later. The superb Dayle Rooney created the lead goal. He put Robinson in with a great through ball. The striker slotted the ball past the out-rushing Shepherd.

Dundalk were level five minutes to the break. Adam Foley did well to prevent a Greg Sloggett header going out for a corner. The clearance came to Paul Doyle on the edge of the Drogheda box. He unleashed an unstoppable effort to the net.

It was a great time to score as it allowed Dundalk to go in level at the break.

Dundalk hit the front on 46 minutes when Archie Davies pumped in a great ball from the right.

Daniel latched Kelly onto the ball and fired a cracker to the net for his seventh goal of the season.

Eighteen minutes from time Drogheda should have levelled when Conor Kane caught the Dundalk defence out with a cross that fell to Warren Davies. He beat Shepherd with a great effort that came back off the Dundalk post. 

But Dundalk amazingly sealed the game on 77 minutes when Daryl Horgan’s cross from the right found Pat Hoban. He rose high to head home. Dundalk never really looked like conceding a goal and in the end sealed the points to keep them in the European race.

They are too far behind Pats who are in 3rd place on 56 points.

They can catch Bohemians who are just 3 points clear of Dundalk and who come to Oriel in a couple of weeks time. But Bohs have a better goal difference. 

Friday night’s clash against Shelbourne is a must win game for Dundalk at Tolka Park. The game against Bohs at Oriel will also be crucial. Even at that, whoever finishes fourth needs Pat’s to win the cup to ensure the place opens the way to Europe.

Stephen O’Donnell told me after the game that his side nearly conceded a number of sloppy goals during the game. He says that is something that must be worked on.

It’s too late as far as I am concerned for Dundalk to do anything about the poor defence they have now. O’Donnell can work on that during the close season. The manager confirmed Sam Durrant is very much part of his plans next season. O’Donnell was much more cautious when I asked him about Nathan Shepperd being at Oriel next season.

He said that he always wants to keep his players that have quality. But interestingly he says he would see about Shepperd’s situation when the season is over and where the club is at.

He says he needs to know where the club ends up before he looks at Sheppherd’s situation. 

I find it strange that he can say he is looking forward to getting Sam Durrant in during the close season. Yet he can not say this about Shepperd.

The manager says that Daniel Kelly is another player he will want to keep. The Dubliner is out of contract at the end of the season. Again the manager is much more certain about keeping Kelly than he is of keeping Shepherd.

It’s amazing. But it is also very worrying. O’Donnell told me that he sat down with the owners and discussed plans for next season two weeks ago.

He says he doesn’t want another situation as had happened last year where the signings were so late as well as the on loan deals. He says he is not looking for whole scale changes to what he has now. He is very happy with his current squad.

But he was keen to say he wants to add to the squad. The manager says he is very interested in keeping Johannes Yi-koko. He is on loan from HJK of Finland.

Greg Sloggett says that morale was low among the players following the defeat at Galway in the cup. Other defeats in the league added to this. Greg says that morale is fine now, following the wins over Cork and Drogheda in four days.

Sloggett was thrilled at the way the team responded against Drogheda after going behind. The Dundalk midfielder come centre half says that Archie Davis was top class getting the ball across into the box for the second goal. Daniel Kelly finished it superbly.

Sloggett says the Paul Doyle goal just before halftime and Daniel Kelly’s lead goal a minute into the second half was a massive boost.

Greg says Daryl Horgan has been a massive asset for the side. He says Horgan’s delivery for Hoban to head home was the goal that won the Louth derby.

Daryl Horgan says he was very confident Dundalk can get the European spot for next season. The man who had so much success with Stephen Kenny says there is no reason why Dundalk cannot win their last four games against Shelbourne, Bohs, Sligo and UCD.

He says Dundalk must go to Tolka Park and believe they can get a win. He says Damian Duff has moulded a top class team at Tolka. But Daryl says that if Dundalk can hit the form they are capable of, then they will win.

He was full of praise for the Paul Doyle goal. He said that since Paul has come back for the past three games, he has been a real rock at midfield.

Daryl says that Archie Davis looks like a real talent. He says that should Archie keep going the way he has been going, he will develop into a top class player. Daryl and Pat Hoban have had fantastic times in the Stephen Kenny era. He described him as a fox in the box that has tormented teams since he arrived on the scene at Oriel.

The Galway man says his cross for Hoban to rise above everybody for the third goal showed just how good Hoban is. Daryl says the defeat against Galway was a real disappointment. This, he says, was added to by the defeat at Pat’s. Horgan says that he, like any other player, just wants to win games. 

He says against Galway, Dundalk just never really gave a good account of themselves.

Daryl says it is great to be back in Oriel. He says he spoke to Stephen O’Donnell in January. He says the newly born twins in his family needed the special care facility in hospital for a time in the UK.

It meant he would not be able to arrive at Oriel until the summer. Daryl says he came back to Oriel as a result of a football decision. He said he took his time making up his mind about coming back to Dundalk. He says it was a huge decision for both himself and his family as he is 30 years of age going on 31.

Daryl says he has very similar football ideas and philosophies as the manager and how he wants to do things and also how he wants to play. He says there is a great group of lads at Oriel. He added he wanted to come back and help the group to become successful again. Daryl says he is delighted to be back and wants to see Dundalk become a force in League of Ireland football.

Shelbourne will have the largest playing budget in the League of Ireland next season. This is because of the takeover of the club by Hull City.

The English Championship side were due to take over Dundalk, but finally decided to make a move for Shelbourne. Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley told the media in an interview that Shamrock Rovers will not have the largest budget next season. But he says it will be Shelbourne.

Speculation continues why Hull did not take over Dundalk. One reason put forward this week to me was that it was because the club did not own Oriel, whereas Shelbourne owned Tolka.

As a result, it would have been more expensive to take over Dundalk as the Hull owners would have wanted to buy Oriel outright from the Casey family. So yet another reason being put forward why the takeover did not go ahead.. 

Drogheda United chairwoman Joamma Byrne says the new investors who are about to take over the club in the coming days will be injecting much needed revenue into the club.

Speaking on LMFM Joanna says that Drogheda as a town is right in the heart of the Dublin Belfast economic corridor, this puts the town in a special place.

The north environs of Drogheda are also expected to increase by 23,000 people in the next three years. This area is very close to the area where it’s planned Drogheda will build their new stadium.

Have a safe week. Dundalk are in Tolka Park to play Shelbourne next Friday. Let’s hope for a win.