EIRCOM LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

26th March

Monaghan United 3

ANDY MYLER 55, 77

PAUL SMITH 69

Dundalk 2

DEREK DELANEY 45

JOHN FLANAGAN 60

John Whyte sent off

Paul Campbell sent off

You only had to look at the faces of the players walking off the pitch to sum up the feeling in the Dundalk camp after this match. Noel Melvin, after being seperated from referee Paul Murphy looked shattered as he walked off while behind John Flanagan had his head in his hands barely able to look at the large Dundalk contingent who had gathered around the entrance to the dressing rooms to vent their anger at the match officials while a weary looking Terry Eviston walked by looking completely shocked by the preceding twenty five minutes of madness which saw Dundalk throw away what should have been a comfortable lead into an embarassing defeat and one which put a severe dent in Dundalks promotion hopes, the ironic fact is the defeat came when Dundalk knew victory would put them ahead of Longford who had slipped up the night before at home to St Francis

Four changes were made to the side that struggled past Kilkenny. Dropped were David Hoey and David Ward with Derek Delaney and John Whyte respectively coming in. Whyte moved to right back with Campbell moving forward to right midfield. Paul Whelan missed out through injury and Paddy Quinn missed out through injury so Padraig Gollogley came into the centre of defence and returning from injury Brian Morrisroe replaced Quinn.

Dundalk attacked from the start and considering 95% of the crowd was made up of Dundalk fans it never really felt like an away match. Maybe the fact it felt like a home match was the reason Dundalk lost. If only it was that simple

Dundalk had a glorious chance 10 minutes into the game. Morrisroe put Anto Reilly through with a glorious pass. Reilly was left with Grace to beat and with Izzi unmarked all he had to do was square it and Dundalk would go ahead but to the exasperation of the crowd, and the Italian, Reilly elected to shoot tamely at Grace and a wonderful chance had been squandered. Monaghan did put in some dangerous crosses during this period and their left back O'Callaghan was dangerous for ninety minutes. Gollogley looked short of match practice and lost his marker on several occasions and only good handling by Connolly settled Dundalk down somewhat. David Crawley however lost possession on more than three occasions and very nearly got Dundalk into serious trouble. He was having a definite off day and was also removed from the duty of taking corners. Derek Delaney tried hard in the middle and was unlucky with some audacious passes. He was to open the scoring on 45 minutes in a half littered with Dundalk half chances. The excellent Izzi, Campbell and Morrisroe all had efforts blocked. The goal was brilliantly executed. John Whyte started it when his good run forward from right back saw the ball released to Paul Campbell who masterminded the goal. He exchanged passes with Reilly and after several touches curled a lovely ball into the box over the head of the Monaghan defender to Derek Delaney who took one touch to steady himself 12 yards out before blasting it past John Grace. Right on the stroke of half time, it was perfect timing. Surely now keeping it tight for the second half would ensure Dundalk would move up to second place and put promotion in their own hands.

The second half started fairly mundanely. Izzi was again bright and Campbell was making inroads down the right. Izzi forced a corner in the early stages of the half although Campbells delivery was not good. Then out of the blue on 57 minutes a long ball forward from O'Callaghan caught the Dundalk defence napping and somehow the ball contrived to go past them and straight to Andy Myler who rounded Connolly and finished calmly with his right foot, the mark of a real quality goalscorer. Before Dundalk had time to recover from the shock they went up and promptly scored. Morrisroe fed Izzi who did really well to win a corner. The resultant corner saw recently introduced substitute Mark Reid, who had replaced the disappointing Anto Reilly, troubling the keeper who flapped at it and John Flanagan swept home the rebound with the aid of a deflection, although the ball was goalbound anyway. Surely now Dundalk had got away with it. The craziness which allowed Limerick to grab an unlikely equaliser out of the blue, the madness which allowed Kilkenny equalise with seconds remaining in the Cup. Dundalk had done that but immediately gone up and scored. Surely a side going for promotion could not throw away a lead twice against the team almost propping up the table. Like hell they could.

Tony Izzi had a chance to make it three one but he shot over when maybe he should have passed. A Reid header went over the bar. Yet it looked like now it was going to be a matter of when Dundalk scored their third. Tragically however Derek Delaney in trying to take it past two players 30 yards out lost possession. Monaghan broke and their excellent left back O'Callaghan was given the ball on the left. His cross looked like it had bypassed everyone and all it looked like Noel Melvin had to do was head clear but uncharacteristically he failed to clear and headed the ball to Paul Smyth who from 25 yards inevitably fired home with his left foot into the top corner of the net. A magnificent strike by a player with a bright future, if he stops diving that is. Smyth was to be involved very soon after in the real turning point of the game. When it looked like Dundalk were going to make it three again disaster happened. After a series of corners the ball came to Derek Delaney outside the Monaghan area. There were several Dundalk players in the area, including David Crawley who had gone forward to support the attack when he was supposed to be back with John Whyte covering the pacy Smyth. However Delaneys cross was weak and low and didn't get past the first defender who belted it high and clear over the head of Whyte to leave Smyth through on goal as Crawley had ventured forward. Whyte showed admirable pace to get within touching distance of Smyth and in trying to catch him seemed to pull him back. Smyth fell to the ground and despite Whyte pleading with the player and referee the outcome was again inevitable, red card. Suddenly the impetus had changed and 2-2 would have been a good result, from the position of going forward for a winner Dundalk were now pegged back. Smyth got more time with the ball at his feet on 77 minutes and appeared to fall over the ball however a free kick was awarded. Myler and Johnson stood over it. Johnson decided to take it and Myler calmly walked past the Dundalk wall. No one picked him up. Johnstons low free kick was well saved by Connolly but he could not hold onto it. Unmarked Myler slotted home the rebound. Awful defending, dubious refereeing 3-2.

After that Izzi came close with two volleys. A Noel Melvin overhead kick went narrowly over the crossbar, John Flanagans 30 yard effort missed the post by inches. Ward and Hoey were introduced franatically but neither could make an impact. All exciting to watch if you were a neutral, but for Dundalk fans who have been through so much agony in the past three years it was just the same old story, a litany of wasted chances. To add insult to injury with four minutes left Paul Campbell was sent off for dissent after Murphy gave Monaghan three consecutive throws which should all have been in Dundalks favour. In frustration Campbell lashed out and got his second yellow. It was just too painful to watch after that and the referee blew the final whistle. A hammer blow.

Many players made mistakes. Derek Delaney made some stupid errors which clouded an otherwise promising performance. When put through on goal 40 yards out in the second half he tried to lob the keeper instead of carrying the ball forward. Trying to be too clever he lost possession twice at vital moments, moments which cost Dundalk the match. Yet he took his goal well, but is he mature enough to be able to keep a calm head at such an important time ? Gollogley showed he has suffered from his absence from the first team, as he was pulled all over the place by Myler. Crawley was not at the races at all while Melvin played with passion but made a costly error. Morrisroe and Campbell played well sporadically while Izzi was probably the Dundalk player who really did not make any mistakes apart from shooting rashly when he had time to pass with the score at 2-1

However this game is over and done with now. Let that be the end of the post mortems and it is time to look forward to the next four matches. At the end of the season it is time to reflect. For now, it is all eyes ahead to this coming Saturday and the visit of Cobh Ramblers. Four games which will decide how much money the club make next year, which could decide the success or otherwise of the co-op. They're just far too important to lose, and looking back on this game too often could see the side do just that. 360 minutes of football are still left to be played to and theres plenty of time in that period to eradicate what went wrong in Gortakeegan. The mere size of the travelling support shows Dundalk are far too big for this Division, we are a truly Premier Division side in stature. But thats no good unless we produce the results, and its up to everyone to make all of the next four games winning ones.

DUNDALK FC

1 John Connolly 6

2 John Whyte 7

3 David Crawley 4

4 Padraig Gollogley 5

5 Derek Delaney 6

6 Noel Melvin 6

7 John Flanagan 6

8 Paul Campbell 6

9 Anto Reilly 4

10 Tony Izzi 7

11 Brian Morrisroe 5

SUBS

13 Mark Reid 6 for Reilly

David Hoey for Morrisroe

David Ward for Delaney