25th September
Dundalk drew with Derry City at Oriel Park tonight after a thrilling contest which should have been over at half time as Derry could have been four up but in the second half Dundalk could have scored five or six but should have had Brady sent off. What a night.
Dundalk lined up with one change from Cork - Ray Campbell instead of David Crawley with David Hoey moving to left back with Lee Thew moving to left wing while Tom McNulty suprisingly kept Shane Reddish out of the team. The game started very tamely with Derry having most of the possession when after 15 minutes disaster struck. After Tom McNulty gave him the ball Paul Doolin needlessly lost the ball 25 yards out and the ball was threaded through to Liam Coyle who made no mistake from 12 yards. Goal number two for Derry came after a long ball from midfield sent Michael McHugh free on the left and his low volley slided under Steve Williams. This was Williams' fault and he will be disappointed about that. Dundalk were shellshocked and the sight of Tommy COnnolly with his head in his hands ten minutes later was not encouraging. Coyle, Beckett and McHugh all had chances to make it three but Derry seemed to be happy with 2-0 and made the fatal error of trying to sit on their lead and not attack for a third. Doohan was non-existent in the first half and Brady was being over-run by Coyle. David Hoey was having a stinker at left back while up front neither Withnell nor Ward could get in the game. Lee Thew and Campbell were trying on the wings with little reward. On 44 minutes everything would change. Derry conceded a corner and Soupy's cross was powerfully headed home by Peter Withnell. Dundalk who should have been 4 or 5 down, went in only 2-1 behind and had got impetus from their goal which they did not deserve
Dundalk were a changed team in the second half. The midfield pushed forward, Thew in particular had his best game while Campbell was causing trouble on the right. Peter Withnell was having a stormer, he was giving the Derry defenders hell. On 53 minutes he got away from the defence and was clear on goal after a surging run. He elected to square it to Ward as Platt advanced but the Derry defender got there and put it behind for a corner. Soupy's corner was met by Doolin whose goalbound header was cleared off the line . The loose ball fell to Dundalk and Withnell did well to lay it back to the edge of the box to David Hoey who duly curled a 25 yard cracker in the very top corner of the net. A truly sublime goal which the RTE cameras were there to see. In fact for once RTE had came for a good game as what followed was dramatic. First Derry should have had a player sent off for attacking Ray Campbell when he was on the ground. Then Dundalk gained possession again and David Ward and Peter Withnell began to shine consistently embarassing the Derry defence. However Dundalk really should have went 3-2 down after Liam Coyle got away from Kevin Brady . Coyle was through on goal and just before entering the box was cynically pulled to the ground by Brady. Coyle is a quality player and would not have missed . Brady knew what he had done and the red card was inevitable. All the fans were expecting it. Amazingly he only got a yellow card. It was a scandalous decision. Both teams should have been down to ten men but the Brady incident was more costly because it denied Derry a clear goal.
Dundalk had a great spell then with Ward and Withnell forcing corners. Mick Doohan should have scored when he miscued a header from close range. He could have scored again when his header hit off David Ward when it was headed for goal. Ray Campbell had a go at a free-kick from 25 yards out but it went narrowly wide. Almost a carbon copy of Mark Kenny's goal two weeks before at Oriel. Dundalk came closest when after a scramble in the area Noel Melvin's superb overhead kick was saved brilliantly by Platt and David Ward's shot was deflected against the post. Derry could have scored when Williams brilliantly saved a long range shot. Peter Hutton had a quiet game for Derry and the main threat to Dundalk was Gary Beckett who was subsequently stretchered off after a Doolin challenge. It was truly a great game which will confuse Dundalk fans
It will confuse us because we saw both sides of Dundalk tonight. In the first half a team with no confidence or skill. In the second a bunch of players who worked as a team, created chances and could have won. Lee Thew had his best game for Dundalk while Hoey grew in confidence as the game wore on. Ward and Withnell's contributions were immense in the second half while Ray Campbell and Mick Doohan had great second halves also. Doohan will be out next week so we need a centre half and more squad cover. Reddish was the only viable option on the bench and he is a right back. Still if we can reproduce the second half performance in Bray next week we could have a chance. For that we need vocal support and I ask you the fans of Dundalk to come to Bray and support the team. It could be a long battle and we need all the support we can get.
As I've said in the above paragraph Campbell, Hoey, Ward and Doohan played well but Withnell lifted Dundalk when they needed it, He scored the first and earned the corner for the second. He is an asset to Dundalk .