Injury problems becoming a real issue at Oriel Park

It's never an easy pill to swallow when you lose to Shamrock Rovers. To be beaten at home is even worse. But to be played off the park and be hammered 4-0 in Oriel is nearly impossible for any Dundalk fan to take.

Add to that the performances of ex-Dundalk greats in Sean Hoare, Daniel Cleary and Richie Towell, then the night seemed to end in an April Fool's Eve nightmare.

The Lilywhites were already one down when they were reduced to 10 men on 31 minutes when Robbie Benson was sent off for a foul on Lee Grace. I was close to the incident at the time and it seemed to be very harsh.

Referee Arnold Hunter did not cover himself in glory on the night, as he made a number of very questionable decisions. Most of them did go in favour of Shamrock Rovers. But no way can the referee be blamed for the hammering Dundalk took.

The end of the game might be hard for Dundalk fans to accept. There was a sizeable gulf in depth between these sides.
Rovers reminded me of any of the half decent European sides in the past, who easily showed the gulf in class between the League of Ireland and the better European leagues.

This time it was a League of Ireland side who came to Oriel and just blew Dundalk away.

Many will say I am being harsh on the Oriel Park side. But I am not. I can only say what I saw last Friday night.
The loss of Robbie Benson was of course a massive blow. But I would have to say Rovers were much the better of the sides, even up to the time the Athlone native got sent off. At that stage, it was still only 1-0. 

Dundalk had only one shot on target for the entire night. That was a minute from the end when Keith Ward's effort looked bound for the net. Goalkeeper Alan Mannus made a top-class save, forcing the ball out for a corner. But that stat just tells it all.

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Injury Woes

Dundalk have been badly hit by another injury crisis. Pat Hoban has suffered a recurrence in his calf muscle injury that left him out of the side for so long last season. He will be missing for at least another two weeks.

Hoban is a terrific player. But he has just not yet reached the heights of the performances that he can show. This has been really ongoing since the start of the season. It's worrying that the sides skipper and striker had once again been hit by the recurrence of last season's injury.

Daniel Kelly has been struggling with a recurrence of his hamstring injury. He has been recovering from that injury over the past three weeks. Daniel was brought on as a sub late in the game. But it was way too late for him to have any influence on it.

It emerged after the game that Daniel had only had his first training session since his injury the day before. You have to wonder why he was even on the bench if that was the case.

I asked the manager Stephen O’Donnell what injury Hayden Muller had. He said that he was not injured, but that he had been sent off in the Leinster Senior Cup game against Shelbourne the previous week. He will be ready to go next week.

This made no sense to me whatsoever. Hayden has been forming a very good partnership with Andy Boyle in the centre of defence. O'Donnell opted for Wasiri Williams instead. He has had a couple of starts this season and has done quite well.

But Hayden Muller is a better centre half. And what really confirms my suspicion that Hayden was injured is the fact that Robbie McCourt was brought on late in the game.

If you had a choice of either Muller or McCourt, you would of course go for Muller. Thus, I have no doubt that Hayden had an injury and was not given a place in the game at any stage.

Cameron Elliott also picked up a calf muscle injury. This was in the Leinster Senior Cup game the week before against Shelbourne. He could be missing for at least two weeks. Paul Doyle also remains out through injury.

Louie Annesley is recovering from a very serious infection he picked up after the UCD game. The big Gibraltar international is expected back in a few weeks.

So Stephen O'Donnell has a major injury crisis on his hands very early into the season. Quite a lot of the injuries have been picked up on the artificial surface at Oriel.

Dundalk are once again paying the price for not replacing it this season. They will have to do this next season. Whether they decide to return to grass, should be a no brainer.

The European Union are bringing in a ban on all artificial pitches as they are dangerous to health, not only from picking up a physical injury but also the risks of getting cancer from such surfaces. The current pitch has reached the end of its life cycle. The owners must move on this pronto.

The Rovers Game

Looking through the Shamrock Rovers team, they are hugely strong in all departments. The depth they had on their bench on Friday night looked stronger than Dundalk's.

In defence the Lilywhites struggled all night. Rovers were able to punch holes in the Dundalk backline at will. The Oriel Park side just never had any answer to the three in a row champions.

Darragh Leahy is a very good player. But he seems to be struggling this year, especially at Oriel. Wasiri Williams will get better as the season goes on. But once Hayden Muller regains full fitness, he needs to be slotted back into the central defender’s role.

The loss of Hoban could be very significant. How quickly he can return is hugely important to Dundalk's race for third place and European football in 2024.

I am amazed looking at Shamrock Rovers how Friday night was their first win of the season. There is no doubt that the 2-week break for the internationals did them the power of good. It let Stephen Bradley have a chance to recharge the batteries in his team.

They are certainly looking hungry again and they want the four in a row. Up to now some felt that apathy had crept in among some Rovers players. Well that has well and truly been knocked out of them.

The Hoops led on 21 minutes with a superb goal from Rory Gaffney. Neil Farrugia chested the ball down to Daniel Cleary.
He crossed the ball for Gaffney. He beat Archie Davies to the ball and headed it magnificently into the net. It was the 12th goal scored by Gafney against Dundalk, playing for three clubs over 34 games.

John Martin missed a great chance to level for Dundalk just minutes after that. He lost his balance as he bore down on goals. He had been set up by an excellent through ball from Conor Malley.

The Sending Off

Robbie Benson was sent off for allegedly catching Lee Grace as he tried to control the ball with a high foot. Stephen O'Donnell said that Dundalk would without doubt appeal the decision. Sadly, this didn't go the club's way.

He said that if the referee did think that Benson did use a high leg, then it was a yellow card. He felt the referee had made a very defined decision so early in the game and his team had played very well up to the sending off. He says that had a yellow card been given, nobody would’ve batted an eyelid.

The Galwegian says the footage shows that Robbie toes the ball first. There was a moment of coming together with Lee Grace. The sending off completely changed the course of the game. He said the officials should not have got involved in such a decision so early in the game.

It seems even the Rovers bench thought it was a bad decision. Well to me, they protested very hard at the tackle. It looked to me as if they were not unhappy to see Robbie being sent off.

Stephen told me he would not comment on the referee's performance. He says the sending off incident decision was not serious foul play. Again, he stressed there was no need for the referee to get involved.

He says the ball was hopping up on the halfway line and that it was an honest challenge.
Both players were putting their legs up to play the ball. O'Donnell says that Lee Grace seemed to have no issue with the tackle. The Dundalk boss felt Grace was not hobbling.

O'Donnell stressed there was no serious foul play whatsoever and it was very frustrating when he feels that. Stephen discounted views that the Rovers players were reacting in such a way to get Benson sent off.

O'Donnell says the officials were in control of their own decisions. He said it was so frustrating, as everybody prepares for the game so hard and then some incident like a sending off happens.

In general, he has no qualms about a decision if a red card is a red card incident. He said there was no need to force a decision or manipulate one.

Stephen asked the media what we thought. The Dublin media said they thought it was a red card. They said they would need to see the incident closer up.

Well, I saw it closer up and I have no hesitation in saying it was a disgraceful decision by the referee. I also felt the reaction of some of the Rovers players did not help things and seemed to trigger the referee to give a red card to Robbie Benson, the first in his long career. 

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A Major Loss

Rovers just simply bossed the second half. The goal of the game came on 70 minutes when Richie Towell put in a pinpoint cross to Johnny Kenny. He headed the ball to the net to put them three up.

Within six minutes it was goal number four. Sean Kavanagh floated a cross in from the right. Graham Burke, only on as a sub, slotted the ball into the empty net.

Dundalk had suffered their heaviest defeat from Shamrock Rovers since 2012, when the Hoops won 7-0 in Tallaght. Darius Kierans was manager of the team, with Martin Connolly as his assistant.

So where to now for Dundalk? I have not seen as heavy a Dundalk defeat since the bad old days of the Trevor Anderson era in 2002 and 2003.

Dundalk languished in the first Division then, but what's happening with Stephen O'Donnell's team is nothing like that. Friday's defeat was only Dundalk's second home defeat in two years in the League at Oriel.

The club are still a force and can compete for the third spot for Europe. They are simply not good enough to compete for league honours.

Friday's defeat reminds me of the opening day of the 1990 season. It was in September when Shelbourne came to town for the opening game of the new league season.

Shels hammered Dundalk 5-1. Former Dundalk player Paul Newe got four. I left the ground thinking the Lilywhites were going nowhere that season. How wrong I was.

Dundalk went on to win the league and also had the best defence among the other teams, despite conceding five goals on the opening day. This current team have a good manager. Let's see how the rest of the season pans out.

Oriel Refurbishments

It was there for all to see on Friday night, just how much Oriel Park needs to be completely upgraded. The 600 Shamrock Rovers fans who travelled had no cover at all, as the rain pelted down throughout the game.

Around 400 Dundalk supporters had no cover either as the ground's facilities are so bad. It is an absolute disgrace to expect home or away supporters to be soaked to the skin because a club cannot provide them with the guarantee of some cover should it rain.

I know a family from Dundalk who left the ground at half time because they could not stick the conditions anymore. They say it was not the half time score that made them leave. It was the rain.

Would you expect the organisers of any other public event to ask people to pay good money to see it and have the risk of being soaked to the skin also? The answer is NO. But sadly, it does happen in the League of Ireland and not just at Oriel Park. Most grounds are not up to standard.

I gave a possible solution last week about how the club could get funding for a new stadium, where it is not going to cost them anything. I wonder is there anybody among the owners who has the foresight, imagination and leadership skills to lead the club into the 21st century.

I know the owners are all people of high integrity. But to them I say you have to go for it. There is no alternative. If the owners cannot do it themselves, then hire a person to lead the project forward.

I believe that the FAI may well force clubs to close away supporters ends of a ground if they have substandard facilities and advise the away fans not to travel in the interest of their own welfare. I understand that a sizeable enough crowd left the Oriel at half time because they were getting soaked. 

Final Thoughts

Stephen Kenny's Republic of Ireland were very unlucky to lose to France by a single goal last Monday week at the Aviva stadium. It was a great performance by Ireland.

The week before they put in a substandard performance, winning narrowly against Latvia in a friendly. 8 days ago, it was a qualifying round for the Euros.

Ireland were denied a deserved equaliser right at the end when the French keeper pulled off two incredible saves. But Ireland have to start winning games. Moral victories are worthless.

Kenny must steer his team to an away win against Greece in June and a home win against Gibraltar. Anything short of that won’t do. Kenny's teams have done well against the big teams. They have lost points all over the shop against the lower seeded teams.

He must build on last week’s good showing against France. He told the media after the game that the Championship in England finishes a full month before Ireland play in June. He says this will give him a good chance to prepare his team correctly.

The Jimmy Hasty documentary is beginning to get a lot of attention. It was featured on BBC Radio Ulster's main lunchtime news programme named Talk Back last Friday.

John Murphy was a guest on the programme. Richard Milway, the producer of the UEFA documentary, was also on the show speaking about Jimmy. Paddy Malone also featured.

A man named Johnny Hicks contacted the programme. In a tweet he said he was a reporter who covered Jimmy's murder by loyalist terrorists on 11th October 1974. Mr Hicks said he was a reporter and worked for the Daily Mail.

He said amongst the mourners inside the Hasty home following Jimmy's murder was a man in a black coat. His name is John Ley from the Daily Express. He is still alive today and is aged 93. 

Next up for Dundalk is a league game against Sligo Rovers on Good Friday. Dundalk then make the long journey south to Turners Cross to face Cork on the Bank Holiday Monday.

Have a safe week. Look after yourselves and please remember,  be careful out there.