EIRCOM LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

2nd April

Dundalk 1

TONY IZZI 45

Cobh Ramblers 1

MARK CLIFFORD 30

Dundalk's promotion hopes suffered another severe blow on Saturday night as Terry Evistons men failed to use home advantage and only drew with fifth place Cobh Ramblers. Once again it was a game Dundalk should have won, but as experiences this season have proven, should have won counts for nothing. Its League points that matter and Dundalk only have one to show for this match

Two changes were made to the team that lost in Monaghan. David Ward and Paddy Quinn came in for Anto Reilly and Derek Delany. Campbell moved to centre midfield with Quinn moving to the right side.

The early play was dominated by Dundalk with Morrisroe getting good crosses in from the left. The inexperience of Paddy Quinn showed as the crosses put in were perfect for a natural right winger but he failed to get into the telling positions and get the header on the ball that the cross deserved. David Ward also came close with some low right footed efforts during the opening half. One rebounded off the post while the other went narrowly wide. Dundalk started like a team wanting to get over the Monaghan setback but on 30 minutes everything went wrong.

An aimless ball fell to Cobh midfielder Mark Clifford 25 yards out. He hit a volley with little power straight at Connolly but somehow the keeper let the ball slip through his arms and trickle embarassingly over the line to silence the home crowd on a wet night. The first home game for the co-op celebrations, which included a brass band would have been better suited to better weather and a better performance. Amazingly Dundalk almost equalised straight away when Cobh defenders got their wires crossed and a Crawley ball left Izzi clean through. You would have put your house on the Italian scoring but despite beating the keeper the shot rolled wide of the post to the amazement and frustration of the crowd. Izzi came close two minutes later with a diving header. Hes the kind of striker who when he misses a chance he doesn't hide and he was determined to make up for the error. He did just that on half time when Morrisroe and Ward's slightly erratic exchange inside the box broke to the Italian who from a tight angle fired past Derek Slattery. The chance was significantly harder than the one he had missed five minutes previous.

Just like last week Dundalk had scored on half time and the players should have came out for the second half fired up. While in Monaghan they started the second half quite subdued they came out with all guns blazing on this occasion. Within the first ten minutes of the half Izzi had been put through by Morrisroe but the pass was fractionally too far ahead of him. He got to the ball and got is past the keeper but it did not have sufficient pace to get to the net and a Cobh defender got back and cleared. Paddy Quinn who had an otherwise disappointing game came very close when taking it past two Cobh defender before having a ferocious shot saved by Slattery in the Cobh goals. From the resulting corner Cobh scrambled the ball off the line. Was it going to be one of those days ?

Cobh still had two good chances in the half. One was from a free header from a corner which the Cobh attacker should have at least got on target. The other came when a mix up in the Dundalk area left Clifford with a free shot on goal but Paudie Gollogley heroically got back to block and injure himself in the process.

Delaney replaced the lethargic Quinn but no significant change was apparent. Dundalk had the customary header or two blocked off the line with Noel Melvin unlucky to see Murphy clear his effort away. Flanagan should have scored when his free header from eight yards sailed over the bar. Word filtered through that Longford were ahead and it was looking bad for Dundalk. With ten minutes to go Tony Izzi almost sent Oriel Park into delirium when after picking the ball up innocuously near the corner flag he audaciously flicked it back past a Cobh defender, rounded another two Cobh defenders and going away from goal curled a left foot shot from 20 yards which shaved the post and had goal written all over it when it left his foot. It was terribly unlucky for the Italian who despite his first half misses was Dundalks best player on the day. Reilly came on for Ward as Dundalk threw the proverbial kitchen sink at Ramblers in the dying seconds. Melvin shot straight at Slattery after the final corner and the game was resigned to finish in a draw. Derek Delany should have been sent off when he stupidly threw a kick at a Cobh defender but Paul Murphy, last Sundays ref in Monaghan who had replaced the injured John Stacey 20 minutes in, elected to award a yellow card only.

Performance wise, Izzi was Dundalks best player. The back four were shaky. In midfield Campbell looked more suited to a central role but like Morrisroe faded out of the game in the second half after an excellent first half. Flanagan was more quiet than usual while Ward dropped out of the game in the second half after an encouraging opening forty five. The setback from the Connolly mistake and the shock it caused with Dundalk from a position of dominance to trying to play catch up clearly got the better of some players

So again Dundalk slip up. To do so at such a crucial stage and in two such important matches is criminal. Failure to convert pressure into goals has been a constant problem, which struck for the first time in the first game of the season. Once again though there is no need to go along with the negative opinions of those who believe it is over now. That defeatist nonsence is depressing to hear. Cries of "another year in Division One" were heard after the final whistle. Even if we don't go up automatically there is always a playoff. Worries were expressed about Kilkenny catching us also. Well if you start looking over your shoulders you're bound to get caught. However Fridays game at Athlone is now the most crucial of the season. A win would put Dundalk level with Longford who have to go to Kilkenny on Saturday. Failure to win would unfortunately leave the door open for Kilkenny. After all the messing of the past 180 minutes it is time to throw complacency out the window.

Now the players have to ask themselves if they want to play in this horrible Division next year, and if they want to play for Dundalk FC next year. They can't answer us here, theres only one place where they can : on the pitch on Friday.

DUNDALK FC

1 John Connolly 5

2 John Whyte 6

3 David Crawley 4

4 Padraig Gollogley 6

5 John Flanagan 5

6 Noel Melvin 6

7 Paddy Quinn 4

8 Paul Campbell 5

9 David Ward 6

10 Tony Izzi 8

11 Brian Morrisroe 6

SUBS

13 Derek Delaney 5 for Quinn

Anto Reilly [not on long enough for rating] for Ward