EIRCOM LEAGUE DIVISION ONE EIRCOM LEAGUE DIVISION ONE 25th September
Dundalk 1
DAVID WARD 67
Athlone Town 0
Dundalk finally made their pressure pay at Oriel Park and secured their first home win in 7 months against Athlone Town in Oriel Park tonight. The vital goal came from David Ward who for the last two games has made all his critics eat their words. The crucial thing is that Dundalk have built on last weeks win in Cobh and have now propelled themselves into the promotion chase. Dundalk are now only four points behind Longford who are in second. This sets Dundalk up perfectly for the tough trip to Bray next Friday
Dundalk made two changes from last weeks victors. John Connolly answered Dundalk's call and came into goals in place of Josh Moran. David Hoey returned from suspension and came in for Derek Delaney on the right wing. Elsewhere, Dundalk were unchanged.
Dundalk started brightly as per usual and should have gone ahead after 10 minutes when Dundalk were gifted a penalty. A short backpass was intercepted by Ward who took it past Connaughton who clipped him and took him down. The keeper only received a yellow card but Dundalk wouldn't have minded if Brian Morris-Roe had put it away. However the keeper pulled off a magnificent save and maybe it would have been better if he had been sent off. This was by far the best of the three missed Dundalk penalties so far this season. It was just an excellent save.
Athlone had their dangerous moments in the half. In fact without the brilliant Noel Melvin Dundalk could have gone in behind at half time. Dundalk should have got the message when a header from a right wing cross was saved well by Connolly but they still allowed Athlone time on the ball and when their dangerous number nine was put through twice it was Melvin who made two outstanding, well timed last ditch tackles. Gollogley let players go past him in the first half but by the second half the duo had got back to the form of Cobh the week before and on the night were Dundalk's two most solid performers. With that period of Athlone pressure behind them Dundalk turned their attention to getting forward again. A cross from Hoey came all the way to Morris-Roe whose fierce shot was blocked by an Athlone defender. Hoey was put through but unsuccessfully tried to dink it over the keeper. More chances followed for Ward and Honan and the keeper had some work to do but Athlone held out for 0-0 at half time
The second half saw Dundalk come out fighting. Morris-Roe injured himself and had to be replaced by Derek Delaney. This move saw Hoey switch to left wing and Delaney slotting in on the right. Neither wingers had good second halves even though Hoey was very lively. His touch let him down on vital occasions and he tired towards the end. Delaney was a little bit too light on occasions but had some good touches in the course of the game. For Dundalk the combative midfield pairing of Mc Nulty and Flanagan were prominent in the second half. They weren't as fiery as some Athlone players. Around six Athlone players ended up with yellow cards to their name and could easily have had a couple of reds with one particular malicious elbow on David Ward going unpunished. As for Ward himself. He had a good game, a very good game in fact. He led the Dundalk line well and if he keeps this up then he will be a threat to most defences. The fact that he can be this good some days and completely disinterested on others is what irks Dundalk fans the most. He chased and harried the Athlone defenders throughout the match and right up until the final minute and after a succession of missed chances from himself, Delaney and a few long range shots from McNulty it was Ward who put Dundalk ahead on sixty seven minutes.
Whyte found space for a right wing cross and as the Athlone defence stepped out Honan flicked it on and Ward found himself on his own eight yards out. He composed himself and slotted it past Connaughton to put Dundalk one up and end 350 minutes of football without a Dundalk goal in Oriel Park. Dundalk sat back a bit too much after the goal and allowed Athlone a few speculative long range efforts. However Dundalk should have made it two when Ward raced with the ball into the Athlone box and from a tight angle tried to square it but it was behind Honan and Athlone cleared it. Delaney nearly nipped in for a second but with eight minutes left John Whyte almost gifted Athlone an equaliser.
Whyte was left facing the Dundalk goal around twenty yards out with an Athlone striker chasing him but in no apparent danger. However he left his backpass woefully short and Donoghue nipped in and took it past Connolly who got out quickly to close the angle. Donoghue hit the ball a bit too far and he stopped the ball on the endline and hit a low ball across the goal but it missed the onrushing Athlone striker. John Whyte had got out of jail. Maybe it was to be our night after all. Dundalk had most of the possession after that. Crawley hit a left foot free well over the bar ; Honan hit a volley which went wide but was a good effort. Dundalk kept possession right up until the last seconds when Athlone hit a free kick high into the box but Gollogley got it away and the final whistle was blown. The reasonably sized crowd celebrated and Terry Eviston was a relieved man. He had finally achieved his first home win as Dundalk manager.
For Dundalk Melvin and Gollogley were again outstanding with Melvin edging it on his first half display for man of the match. Ward did very well up front with Flanagan doing well in midfield. Those players added backbone to the team. Honan added a physical presence to the front line and his efforts created space for Ward. Elsewhere the performances were not spectacular. Connolly did well in goals and may be called on again. The crucial thing is Dundalk have now a bit of momentum and nine points in the bag. We can now go to Bray full of confidence. Worryingly Dundalk looked short of ideas before the goal which came about because of a long ball. If Dundalk have Morris-Roe and Sharkey available then it will improve Dundalk's chances greatly. A draw would not be a bad result at all because we have these three points in the bag. Finally the curse of Oriel is lifted and Dundalk can now concentrate on the battle for promotion and not the battle for re-election.
1 John Connolly 7
2 John Whyte 6
3 David Crawley 6
4 Padraig Gollogley 8
5 David Hoey 6
6 Noel Melvin 9
7 Tom McNulty 6
8 John Flanagan 7
9 David Ward 8
10 Brian Honan 6
11 Brian Morris-Roe 6
SUBS
13 Derek Delaney 6 for Morris-Roe [half time]