HARP LAGER FAI CUP SECOND ROUND

12th January

Dundalk 1

JOHN SHARKEY 72

Kilkenny 1

DAVID BREEN 90

Kilkenny win 3-2 on penalties after extra time

If Dundalk learn one thing from this season, its going to be that you must take your chances when you get them. Its a lesson which Dundalk have painfully learned over the season and one which has cost the side at least 10 League points and a place in the third round of the FAI Cup. Last night, in a game that was not much of a spectacle Dundalk again surrendered another winning opportunity and handed an understrength Kilkenny an undeserved place in the Cup draw on Monday.

The home side, cheered on by a decent crowd made one positional change from the side that started in Kilkenny last Saturday. Paul Campbell and John Flanagan changed positions with Campbell moving to the middle of the park and Flanagan reverting to right back. Neither players shone on the night because of this and it ultimately had a major part in the Lilywhites bowing out.

The first half was not very inspiring stuff and both sides only had one major chance of note. Dundalk at times punted the ball up into air for no reason which was perplexing as Dundalk have a front pair in Izzi and Ward who can play really well with the ball at their feet, in fact the insistence to keep hammering the ball into the air was more infuriating than perplexing as this style was playing into Kilkennys hands. Dundalk's chance came on 28 minutes when some good chasing by Tony Izzi saw him take it round a Kilkenny player and make a dangerous run to the endline where he pulled the ball back straight into the path of David Ward who with the goalkeeper stranded belted against the post from six yards. Unfortunately this was setting a trend for the evening and by the end of night Dundalk fans were regretting the fact that it was Izzi who was creating the chances for Ward and not vice versa as Izzi is a proven finisher and is not as wasteful in front of goal as his enigmatic counterpart. Kikennys first half chance came on 43 minutes when a dangerous run down the left wing saw Brendan Murphy having to come out and challenge a Kilkenny player who rounded him and managed to turn the ball back across the goal where his teammate blasted over from 8 yards with the goal gaping.

The unsatisfactory first half performance stemmed from the poor crossing on the evening, especially from the out of sorts David Crawley who had a rare bad game. Sharkey couldn't get a kick in this first period and Morrisroe was equally ineffective. Flanagan was struggling at right back while Campbell did not look fit for action in the middle despite getting into some decent positions. David Hoey had a decent enough match in the centre of midfield without doing anything out of the ordinary.

The first twenty minutes of the second half passed by without much incident. Kilkenny had a lot of possession and looked dangerous at times while Dundalk were not without their chances although there weren't any real significant goalscoring opportunites before the breakthrough with a Paul Campbell header from a corner the nearest Dundalk came. On 72 minutes the breakthrough came. Crawley and Morrisroe who had failed to link up well the whole evening finally got it right when a one two between the pair sent Crawley down the left wing. He got the cross right this time and Paul Campbell headed across the goal where John Sharkey gleefully nipped in to blast past Robert Forde from 6 yards and send Dundalk into the lead.

David Ward had a second half to forget however. Although he was unlucky when one brilliant header was saved well by Robert Forde he spurned several gilt edged opportunities, two in particular. On both occasions Tony Izzi was provider. For the first he was released down the left wing by Morrisroe and Izzi placed a perfect pass ahead of Ward into the area. In glorious isolation he fired straight at Forde. Three minutes later and it was almost like deja vu with Izzi again putting Ward on his own in the box after a run down the left wing. Ward carried the ball too far wide and hit the side netting although Forde had a significant part to play in this stop as well. Forde showed on the evening why Dundalk were alerted to his ability in the first place, but also why he was released. He showed his shot stopping ability but his kicking at times was poor and nearly created more Dundalk chances. Kilkenny created some chances in the final quarter and in particular one brilliant volley was well tipped over by Brendan Murphy. However when Dundalk finally cleared a succession of corners with five minutes left and took the ball up the field again for another Ward miss it seemed as though the storm had been weathered. With 2 minutes to go Tony Izzi did very well outside the box and after creating chances all evening he finally had space for a shot and was unlucky when the post denied him. If the chances Ward missed had fallen to Izzi then it would have been game over by then but to credit Ward he certainly gets in the right positions and he has undoubted ability and his deceiving pace sees him get into goalscoring positions. However his problem is he lacks the killer edge a good striker should have. He has not hit the net since November 20 yet he is the only Dundalk striker to feature in every game since then. Confidence is a vital factor of course and Ward lacks this in front of goal.

The Kilkenny goal in the last minute was due to hesitant defending by John Flanagan. He is not half the player he is at right back and with Paul Campbell struggling very badly in midfield his presence was missed there. In the last minute a dangerous run by Aidan Forde on the left wing made Flanagan put the ball behind for a corner. In truth Flanagan let him carry the ball for too far and should have fouled him or forced a throw when the player picked the ball up first in an unthreatening position. Robert Forde even came up for the corner as Kilkenny threw the proverbial kitchen sink at the home side. The corner was cleared to the edge of the area where a Kilkenny player hooked it back in. The Dundalk players rushed out but a lone defender played three Kilkenny attackers on side and despite the desperate attempts of Murphy, Dave Breen eventually scrambled the ball home from five yards to shock the home faithful. The goal came at a time when Dundalk weren't under pressure at all and that made it all the more shocking. Some fans had already exited the ground as they thought the game was safe, there was no real tension in the build up to the Kilkenny goal with all the action down at the other end. Suddenly the chances Dundalk missed weren't just careless, they were costly and now another 30 minutes beckoned.

Dundalk remained unchanged at the start of extra time. The catalogue of missed chances would have been funny if it wasn't so serious. Kilkenny were soaking up the pressure and even at this stage penalties looked inevitable. After another disappointing 15 minutes Terry Eviston decided to ring the changes for the last quarter. Tony Izzi and John Flanagan were withdrawn and Brian Honan and Derek Delaney were introduced. Hoey reverted to right back and Delaney went in alongside Campbell. The Flanagan-Hoey central midfield partnership which looked so good in the last two games had not featured at all on the evening. Paul Campbell was clearly labouring and suffering from cramp. Maybe Flanagan should have moved into the centre of midfield with Campbell being withdrawn. On 108 minutes David Ward squandered another chance. Wriggling free of a Kilkenny defender in the area after a hopeful long ball he found himself with only Forde to beat from six yards but he made a mess of it and his weak shot was saved again by the Dublin based netminder. David Martin came on for John Sharkey but chances were few and far between in the last 10 minutes and the whistle from the referee for penalties came after a few seconds of injury time. After missing three penalties already this season it was probably the worst outcome for Dundalk. The managers had quite obviously not prepared for spot kicks as the players never quite seemed sure who was taking the kicks. However the Dundalk players as they walked up to each penalty kick almost looked beaten already. David Crawley, surely now the regular spot kick taker for Dundalk made no mistake with his to put Dundalk 1-0 ahead. Kilkenny converted their first kick also and soon after looked to have the advantage when Paul Campbell socks around his ankles blasted over the bar. However the next Kilkenny penalty taker fired over as well to send the Dundalk fans into temporary elation. Brian Morrisroe added to this when he made it 2-1 with the next kick. Rory Ginty, rejected by the home side in the Summer stood up next for Kilkenny and while Murphy got a hand to his spot kick it still made its way agonisingly into the bottom right hand corner of the net. The crowd which has gathered behind the goal watched as Derek Delaney trudged forward to take Dundalk's fourth spot kick. However his weak effort was palmed away by Forde to put Kilkenny back into the driving seat. Seconds later their established penalty taker David Walsh slotted home his effort.

What followed was painful to watch. No one seemed to want to take the fifth penalty kick for Dundalk. Eventually some players pushed David Ward forward to take the kick. Ward quite plainly didn't want to. Having missed the easy chance that should have tied up the game in Kilkenny and having also squandered several one on ones in the course of the 90 minutes which should have put the tie beyond doubt the choice of Ward as a spot kick taker was probably not a wise one. He put the ball down on the spot but the mood within the crowd was that the game was lost already and they were almost expecting him to miss given his luck on the evening. Ironically he sent the keeper the wrong way but the ball hit the post which he had earlier hit from 5 yards. He blasted the ball away in frustration when it came back . The small band of Kilkenny fans were delirious. To add to the ugly situation the Dundalk players, many of whom had shirked the responsibility of taking the penalty themselves went immediately down the tunnel, none remained to comfort Ward at all and that task was left to some Kilkenny players. Although Ward was at fault for Dundalk not being in the next round no player deserves the ignominy of being ignored by his teammates in such a way. The events of the evening are best forgotten, it just goes to show a week is a long time in football. However this Saturday there is a clear chance to gain deserved revenge when we travel to Kilkenny in the League. Putting the Cats out of the promotion race would be a suitable cure for the sickening blow which Dundalk received in this Cup match on a gloomy night in Oriel.

DUNDALK FC

1 Brendan Murphy 7

2 John Flanagan 6

3 David Crawley 5

4 David Hoey 7

5 Paul Whelan 7

6 Noel Melvin 7

7 John Sharkey 6

8 Paul Campbell 4

9 David Ward 4

10 Tony Izzi 7

11 Brian Morrisroe 4

SUBS

13 Brian Honan 6 for Izzi

14 Derek Delaney 6 for Flanagan

15 David Martin 6 for Sharkey