14th March
It reminded me of two seasons ago, when we were doomed to the relegation playoff and Cork came and hammered us 4-0 in Oriel in front of a paltry crowd. There was a resigned feeling around the ground that we were going down and that was it. That was the feeling last night. No controversies, not a particularly bad ref, no dodgy hop balls or sendings off or near misses. It was completely our own making. We have no-one to blame. We could have lost 6 or 7 nil and you know a little part of me wishes we did just so it can be plain to everyone that we are in a pretty dire situation here.
Oriel Park was like a morgue, it was so gloomy around the sides of the ground that it could only appeal to some sort of American sci-fi director looking to make an film investigating the abnormal behaviour of the human species. You could hear a pin drop. I half expected stacks of hay to blow across the pitch during the course of the match. It was so depressing. Dundalk made one change from Sunday with Reddish suspended and Dunne coming in. Brennan moved to right wing back with Dunne up alongside Ward. The first half was terrible. Really poor stuff. Dundalk occasionally made two consecutive passes with Derry sometimes advancing to three and occasionally four. The Dundalk players seemed to be playing for a draw. Fortune, Mcnulty and Thew seemed consigned to their own half with only the occasional foray up the left by Crawley who is like a fish out of water when he gets over the halfway line. His head goes down and he charges forward with little finesse at the end. It has never worked playing Crawley in an attacking role. He gets into the positions but can't find that killer touch. He would be much better served as one of the three centre backs although he occasionally thinks he is a Brazilian World Cup star and tries to dribble past everyone twice. Derry looked like a team playing out their remaining games and waiting for the Bosman ruling to decide their fate in the Summer apart from young striker Darren McCaul who looks something special. I know we have someone in our squad just as good as him. That is David Martin but he never really got a chance to show how good he is in his 10 minutes. Jim instead plumped for the "safe" option of David Ward. You get the feeling that if Oriel Park was going up in flames and about to explode in 30 seconds David would wait for around 25 seconds before nonchalantly strolling towards the exit. Think how young David is. He could be frustrating us for the next 15 years , still living off his two goals at the tail end of last season.
The second half was a little bit better, considering there was a corner or two thrown into the equation. Derry ran riot and should have taken the lead when Liam Coyle was put through but embarassingly for him shot wide. Poor old Steve Williams was doing nothing wrong, catching every corner making all the saves. The game was just lifeless. Dundalk moved Jumbo up front alongside Ward with Dunne into midfield with Melvin and McNulty reverting to right full in a 4-4-2 but before Dundalk adjusted to this McNulty came off with a knee injury which could be worrying and was replaced by Harte. Brennan came back to right back with Harte up front. When Tom went the commitment went. Stupid as it sounds and looks the players did not seem to care. It looked like we were either 4-0 down or 4-0 up because there was no urgency. Silly possession was lost but no-one wanted to chase back. A Derry goal was inevitable . It came when Gollogly ended up on the ground with the ball trapped under his feet he stuck a leg out and deflected it to a Derry player who slipped McCaul through. He kept his head and skipped past Williams to stick the ball into the empty net. Game over. We weren't going to score. Finally Martin was introduced with Dunne replaced. At least when Martin came on we started to attack. His pace took him into dangerous positions and within minutes he forced Derry into giving away a corner. We wasted it of course but the chance could have been there. If he had played for ninety minutes and created all those chances then on the law of averages we could have got something. To be fair the Derry defence was good once they went 1-0 up while ours became ragged. On one occasion McCaul had the whole Dundalk half to himself as he raced in on Williams but Steve saved. Coyle shot over when it looked easier to score around that time too. For Dundalk, Thew and Gollogly jumped into each other and missed the ball inside the Derry box. If a picture could have told a story then.
I was perplexed by this performance. It was just so tired, directionless, I wondered where the committed fiery Dundalk team from Sunday had gone to. This game is over and done with. We shouldn't dwell on it we just have to get on with it go to Bray next week and win because if we lose we will be in very very deep trouble. Now is not the time to have a bad run of form.
Steve Williams, bless 'im.