EIRCOM LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

31st October

Longford 1

WESLEY BYRNE 45

Dundalk 0

Longford inflicted their third 1-0 defeat on Dundalk this season in a rainy and windy Strokestown Road last night. Even if Longford's little goalie Stephen O Brien seems to be unbeatable when he faces Dundalk the amount of shots he had to deal with were minimal compared to his opposite number John Connolly.

Many Dundalk fans were having their first visit to Strokestown Road. The ground, with all due respect is awful. Going on last nights performance Longford have as good a chance of any of being promoted but their facilities are so substandard that one would ponder the merits of letting them into the Premier Division with a pitch surrounded by grassy banks and a series of very unstable sheds.

Dundalk remained unchanged yet again with manager Terry Eviston showing himself to be an advocate of the " if it ain't broke don't fix it " method. Longford were hoping to recover from conceding an 87th minute goal against Athlone last week which saw a likely three points become only one.

The hosts however did not start like a team which was lacking in confidence. They threatened John Connollys goal from the outset and gave the Dundalk defence plenty to think about. Playing with the wind gave Longford a distinct advantage as innocuous long balls forward suddenly became very dangerous and free kicks for Longford from anywhere inside in the Dundalk half suddenly became goalscoring opportunites. Longford had plenty of possession but little clear goalscoring opportunities. Most of their chances came from long shots after the Dundalk midfield let Longford players push forward in great numbers. Richie Parson was proving to be a handful but it was the Longford midfield four, well marshalled by ex-Dundalk midfielder Stephen Kelly who were adding weight in numbers to the Longford attacks. However after 25 minutes Dundalk fans could be forgiven for thinking that the Lilywhites had weathered the storm as Dundalk began to get into the game. David Hoey had a snapshot which went wide, as did David Ward but it was a strong run from midfield from Tom McNulty which created Dundalk's best chance. Skipping past two challenges he allowed David Ward make a decoy run so he could slot the ball into the path of Brian Honan who was outside the Longford box but had a clear shot on goal. Instead of taking a touch and advancing further to pick his spot he instead tried to lob O'Brien but the shot sailed over. At the time this chance could have been interpreted as a sign of things to come , however , it was to be the clearest chance Dundalk got for the whole 90 minutes.

The loss of McNulty soon after was to be a crippling loss to the Dundalk midfield. John Sharkey was introduced for the injured midfielder and came in on the right side of midfield with David Hoey moving to central midfield. Hoey is still only a shadow of his former self and lost the midfield battle. Flanagan missed McNulty's influence and drifted in and out of the game. It has been said recently that McNulty is past his best, which he is but the simple fact remains that while McNulty's forays forward are less frequent than in his heyday his steadying influence on the Dundalk midfield is not fully appreciated until he is not there. Once McNulty went off, it was all downhill for Dundalk.

The crucial goal came on 45 minutes when Longford's dangerous left back Wesley Byrne came forward to join the attack after a free kick was conceded in midfield by David Hoey. The ball was moved forward by Longford and eventually found Byrne who found space outside the box to have time to hit a magnificent curling left foot shot past John Connolly and into the back of the net. Dundalk were lucky not to go in 2-0 down at half time when Byrne again broke forward and after a quick one two with Parsons the ex-Pats player had his powerful left shot wonderfully saved by the rapidly advancing Connolly.

The second half saw Dundalk have more possession and chances. However the physical Longford defenders had the measure of Ward and Honan. They doubled up on Ward when he had time to run with the ball while Honan was ineffective against a taller and stronger opponent. The lack of PA in the ground means that I have no knowledge of who the Longford substitute no 15 was but he was very quick and skiful and gave Dundalk problems when Longford broke out of defence. The Longford number eleven was equally impressive if not more so and gave Dundalk plenty to think about but one could not fault the contribution of the Dundalk back four in the second half, Longford were allowed to move past the Dundalk midfield too quickly with neither Morrisroe or Sharkey giving Longford any troubles on their respective wings.

Dundalk gave Anto Reilly his debut. The striker who was prolific with Shamrocks in the Summer League in the summer gone by replaced Brian Honan with Eviston preferring a target man rather than the pacy David Martin. Reilly will need time to adjust to this level but did have a chance when his header was well saved by O Brien later on. Dundalk got into the game in the last 20 minutes and David Ward made some good breaks down the left. He could have scored when he made a dangerous break into the Longford box but he over elaborated and had his shot blocked. Dundalk had a succession of corners but Longfords keeper was punching everything to safety. Dundalk were reduced to ambitious long shots which never reached the intended destination or wasted the opportunity to shoot when it presented itself. Longford chose to attack on the break in what was becoming a bad tempered game aided by an inept official who had obviously never heard the word advantage outside of a tennis court. Stephen Kelly could have tied the match up when he headed the ball over the bar unmarked from a Wes Byrne corner. Whyte was withdrawn and replaced by Martin who was given the mandatory four minutes to impress as Dundalk reverted to 4-3-3 which became 2-0-8 as everyone was thrown forward for a frantic last three minutes. David Ward nearly scored when his 25 yard shot missed the top corner of the net by inches and to add insult to injury went straight down the players tunnel which was behind the goal.

The large band of visiting supporters were irate at the timewasting tactics of Longford but who can blame them. They were full value for their three points and played an impressive brand of football with some skilful players. Dundalk failed to lift their game like they did for the second half in Bray and will have to find that form again if they are to beat Kilkenny next Saturday. The back four and Connolly were the only players who did well for Dundalk with the attacking players ineffective and for long periods of the game they didn't seem to be on the pitch at all.

This result is a setback but the better team on the day won. Dundalk failed to perform and while you can play badly and beat the likes of St Francis and Limerick it is a different story against other sides such as Longford who are now in pole position in the promotion chase.

DUNDALK FC

1 John Connolly 8

2 John Whyte 7

3 David Crawley 8

4 Tom McNulty 7

5 Padraig Gollogley 7

6 Noel Melvin 7

7 David Hoey 5

8 John Flanagan 6

9 David Ward 5

10 Brian Honan 5

11 Brian Morrisroe 5

SUBS

15 John Sharkey 5 for McNulty

17 Anto Reilly 6 for Honan

13 David Martin 6 for Whyte