3rd January
And so it continues. Our abysmal record against fellow strugglers is maintained after a display of such ineptness that even the players looked embarrassed. This performance was rubbish at its best with the worst managerial decisions known to mankind thrown in on top of the problem as well. Kevin Brady obviously has a new clause in his contract which means he cannot be subbed off or dropped. It all went wrong from the start with Thew and Byrne ruled out with illness or injury. In stepped Padraig Gollogly, brilliant in Derry but a bit out of his depth here and in came Peter Withnell. Cliftonville were here to complete his signing, I would not be at all surprised if they've changed their minds. Michael Harte was given the boot and Noel Melvin stepped in making his first start in a while.
What in Gods name was Crawley doing in midfield. He was lost and had a stinker while I would not like to say what I thought of Brady at left back just in case his lawyer is reading. Never have Bohs had so much space down the right wing where they were dancing round the Dundalk players. Of course Derek Swan was his dapper little self hopping around the Dundalk players who were having a good roll in the mud while he set off goalwards. A measure of our attacking penetration during the match was that their keeper had no save to make from a Dundalk shot inside 20 yards. That was a shot from Crawley who came close in injury time with a similar effort. By the way this is for the whole match, not just for the first half.
Bohs could have had two penalties and could easily have won 5 or 6-0. We could not have complained if they did. The finger is solely pointed at the Dundalk bench where the action going on there was like a Carry On film. Carry On Substituting your Best Players would have been the title of this one. The Bohs goal was inevitably from a right wing cross which Brady watched while lying on the ground. The ball went across the box and eluded everyone. It came to a Bohs players who dinked it back across onto the head of the unmarked Derek Swan who had the freedom of Oriel Park to nod it past Steve Williams. Swan had another chance soon after when he lobbed it over the advancing keeper but the ball trickled wide. Graham Lawlor must have thought it was in because he could have easily jogged up and tapped it in. Surely this was our day with the luck we were getting. One could have been forgiven for thinking that after ten minutes of the second half when Bohs had two penalty appeals waved away and when the Dundalk defence was stretched again Noel Melvin got an excellent block in to keep it at 1-0. Now the real fun began when Jim and Tommy decide it was time to push forward for the equaliser so they replace striker David Ward with midfielder Ciaran Dunne. We had now changed from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1. We were defending Bohs' one goal lead. But wait there's more. Rightly, it was time to bring on Michael Harte. We had to take off Brady or Crawley. Bringing off Brady would mean Crawley reverting to left back and Harte going to the left wing. Instead we took off the steady half of our central defence David Capper. When his number was held up everyone [Capper included] nearly dropped with astonishment. Harte went on with Brady returning to join Gollogly in a partnership that had us all scared for the last 15 minutes. Harte ended up playing the last 10 minutes as left back along with Crawley. Peter continually ran offside and Soupy wasn't at the races. Shane tried but with no reward while Steve had time for the mandatory fantastic save after a Graham O Hanlon diving header.
Then there was the sending off incident. McNulty had been booked earlier and came in with a late but not what you'd call reckless challenge on O Hanlon who had obviously been watching Mark Kenny play and stamped on McNulty. McNulty got a second yellow and was off along with O Hanlon who got a direct red card. O Hanlon had been a disgrace the whole afternoon and had been tripping and fouling every Dundalk player within five yards. He should never have been on the pitch at half time, let alone with five minutes left. Tom should have known better, he had been getting involved in scraps the whole afternoon as well. He already starts a two game ban next week which will probably increase to three or four games. To cap it all Noel Melvin was injured after a clash of heads on his first game back and with squad members running thin we can't afford injuries.
A mismanaged Dundalk team has lost two six pointers. Of the teams around us, Bohs and Sligo have taken six points off us with Bray taking four and Waterford beating us in our only meeting. This cannot go on and either can the Mickey Mouse team selection and Mickey Mouse tactics. With the Cup becoming a distraction as well the games will start to run out and we could regret shabby performances the like of this.
The performance was so bad there was none announced at the game [maybe there was but the new speaker has an incredibly dreary quiet voice] . It would be embarassing for the player involved if a man of the match was awarded.