EIRCOM LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

15th August

Dundalk 1

DAVID HOEY 77

St Francis 2

BRIAN SHEEHAN 9

GAVIN DOYLE 90

" No better than a junior side St Francis will most likely be the whipping boys again next season " . The words that have come back to haunt me from my First Division season preview. Dundalk lost today against St Francis. I don't think anybody thought St Francis would win. The thought that Dundalk would come back to this Division, win all their games and go back up was dispelled today. Dundalk played poorly, that is true. Dundalk had enough chances to win the game, that is true. Dundalk and their supporters underestimated St Francis and the improvement teams in Division One have made, that is painfully true.

It was all so different before the match. A sunny afternoon in Oriel with a decent enough crowd for a team supposedly as poor and uninviting as St Francis. Tom McNulty led his team out onto the pitch, the 400th time Tom has ran onto a League Of Ireland pitch to play football, I doubt in the previous 399 he had seen Dundalk sink to such depths. Dundalk fielded several summer acquisitons, Brendan Murphy in goal, John Whyte at right back, Finn in for the the not quite fit Hoey in midfield and Reid up front. Add that to a first team start for John Sharkey and Dundalk had a lot of unfamiliar faces on show. At the other end St Francis had a side filled with signings from the Dublin junior Leagues added to players with reserve team experience at National League clubs, Brian Rickard who played in the Dundalk reserves being one such example.

I believe that Dundalk lost this game in the first half. St Francis set out their stall early, defend in numbers and play on the break. This was a masterstroke and while Dundalk played the ball about believing it was inevitable goal number one was on the way St Francis hit Dundalk with a goal on the counter on 9 minutes when striker Brian Sheehan was put through by Gavin Doyle and the flag stayed down. The Dundalk defence for the first of many times in the afternoon was caught square and the striker sprinted away from the Dundalk defenders to slot the ball past the helpless Murphy in the Dundalk goal who barely had anything else to do in the half but pick the ball out of the net. Already Dundalk were in trouble. St Francis defended bravely for the rest of the half and the match in fact while Dundalk pushed forward leaving gaps for St Francis to break. Dundalk had played into St Francis' hands and paid the penalty

Dundalk tried to recover from this blow and played some nice football with Michael Harte prominent in the first half. Dundalk tackled well in midfield but once they came to the final third were either shoved off the ball by St Francis defenders or the final ball was poor. Dundalk could just not convert possession into clear goal chances and when they did the final effort was poor as was demonstrated on several occasions. The most notable when John Sharkey dithered on a clear shooting opportunity and the brave St Francis defenders block kept the ball out. The game was certainly very lively and saw heated exchanges between players on both sides. However despite Dundalk's skill St Francis played a fine tactical game, winning everything in the air, winning free kicks when it seemed not possible and wasting as much time as they could. It might have made them unpopular but it was the right method for them to use, it worked didn't it ?

It was quite obvious at half time that the midfield partnership of Finn and McNulty did not work. McNulty could not get into the game while Finn's contributions were on the whole disappointing. Melvin and Gollogley did not look comfortable at the back either. Eviston took action at half time by replacing Finn with Hoey. Dundalk attacked from the start of the half with Ward's mishit shot coming close. Sharkey also had a chance or two. The small winger flattered to deceive but showed good touches at times, he will have to fight to hold onto his place though, on the basis of this performance. Up front Reid and Ward started to get into the game more, Reid putting himself about and was involved in a game long duel with the equally physical St Francis centre back. Ward made good runs into the space behind, he squandered two chances early in the second half though. He was put through on goal but waited too long and the St Francis players caught up with him. Instead of losing confidence his performance improved in the second half and in fact his display in the last 25 minutes is enough in my book to make him Dundalks' man of the match. At 1-0 with the game starting to get away from Dundalk Eviston made a change with Harte, who made no impression in the second half replaced by Delany. Dundalk moved to 4-3-3 with Delany going straight in up front and Hoey and Sharkey either side of McNulty in midfield. Dundalk then got a glorious chance to make it 1-1. Ward got in behind the defence again and while he again waited too long he maintained possession of the ball and was dragged back by a Francis defender. The referee pointed to the spot. It had been decided that Crawley would take the Dundalk penalties, in hindsight we can say it was a bad decision but who else was there ? Crawley's penalty was low and hard but too close to the keeper who saved well. It looked like Dundalk could not score, it was going to be one of those days. However after the penalty it was again apparent Dundalk were beginning to make inroads on a tiring St Francis defence and with 15 minutes left finally got the equaliser Dundalk had so richly deserved.

It all came from the wonderful persistence of Ward who seems to be returning to form. Chasing a nothing ball he dispossessed a St Francis defender and when the ball seemed to be getting away from him and going over the touchline he made one last desperate effort and managed to retrieve the ball and send a low cross across the box which Sharkey slid at but missed bit the ball rolled across the box where David Hoey running in like a steamtrain met the ball and slammed it ferociously past Wharfield in the Francis goals.

After this goal Ward came into his own showing some wonderful skill and it looked like the Francis defence could not touch him. He danced past defenders and dodged tackles and his wonderful run with five minutes left almost made it 2-1 when he made his way into the box but his shot was well saved and well held by Wharfield. It was at this stage that Jimmy Harte, the St Francis supremo made a match winning decision, replacing tireless front runner Brian Sheehan with another lone striker, Joe Farrell. Farrell got past a tiring Dundalk defence twice, the first time outpacing Whyte but his shot was well saved by Murphy. Phew, we were lucky there was the Dundalk attitude then. Surely that was their one and only chance to win the match gone. The game had now turned full circle and now was like the first ten minutes, Dundalk piling forward looking for an inevitable goal with St Francis dangerous on the break and once again St Francis would score on the break. Dundalk lost possession in attack and the ball came forward to Farrell who got away from a tired Gollogley and slotted the ball over Whyte and onto Gavin Doyle the number 11 who found himself with a clear run on goal and the left winger drilled a left foot shot in off the nearpost, much to Murphy's chagrin.

St Francis were delighted with their victory, Dundalk fans were typically downcast after the defeat. However today was only one game, there are 35 games left. St Francis made it hard for Dundalk to play today, Dundalk had everything to lose today and nothing to gain because victory would have received no praise anyway because it was St Francis. The rollercoaster ride has started again and moves onto Limerick this Tuesday with this game hopefully only a statistic forgotten the day after and not an early demoralising blow to Dundalk's promotion chances.

DUNDALK FC

1 Brendan Murphy 6

2 John Whyte 6

3 David Crawley 6

4 Padraig Gollogley 5

5 Peter Finn 5

6 Noel Melvin 5

7 Tom McNulty 5

8 John Sharkey 6

9 Michael Harte 5

10 David Ward 8

11 Mark Reid 7

SUBSTITUTES

13 David Hoey 7

14 Derek Delany 6