24th January
There was a huge sense of relief around Oriel Park this afternoon , nearly a sense of disbelief that Dundalk had won so easily and played so well. Aertel summed it up best when they put Lee Phew as the scorer of Dundalk's goal. A complete mess up on their part or is their a subliminal message within. David Martin was to make his first start after Jumbo Brennan failed a fitness test but after a quiet opening quarter Martin finally got into the game and was probably the better of the youthful strike force of Ward and Martin. He never got the goal his efforts deserved. Lee Thew won the Dundalk man of the match and I cannot complain. He turned in a fine performance but for me aside from Thew's battling display it was Shane Reddish who stood out.
Steve Williams did not have a save to make in the whole 90 minutes. True, he was beaten all ends up after half an hour when Shane Reddish cleared off the line from a Barry Wood effort but the fact that Williams receives my lowest rating is a measure of the performance itself. From the start Dundalk looked like they wanted it more. Waterford, partnering new signings McGrath and Flood in midfield never really got going after the first 10 minutes which may have killed their spirit. Tom McNulty got straight into the action with a couple of early shots but it was David Martin's quick feet that led to the opener. Shane Reddish rolled it down the line to Martin who jinked past the defender and was taken down. Crawley's low free kick was turned home by Lee Thew. His second goal for Dundalk, the first was against UCD which led to a 2-0 victory that night. The same was going to happen today. Dundalk did not really have any clearcut chances for the rest of the half. There were some speculative shots by McNulty and there were plenty of corners won by the front two of Ward and Martin but no real chances. Some Dundalk fans felt hard done by when after a long ball by Crawley into the box the Waterford keeper, Michael Devine fumbled the ball while clashing with Dunne. David Martin blasted home the loose ball but harshly, a foul was awarded. At half time Dundalk were given a rousing ovation off the field by the Dundalk faithful who had seen a courageous first half display.
In the second half, Dundalk really started to play football. Martin was starting to shine up front with his pace getting him in behind the Waterford defence and causing havoc. David Ward tried but did not look to be really up with the pace while Ciaran Dunne put in a confident display. On the other wing Ray Campbell had a quiet enough second half compared to the first and it was David Crawley who was causing the trouble on the left wing. He got into goalscoring positions on many occasions but either missed or tried to square it across. At the back Noel Melvin was having an absolute stormer and on one occasion passed the ball out of defence to Campbell and sprinted forward into the box and was unlucky not to get the touch on Soupy's cross after a wonderful break. Kevin Brady had his best game of the season alongside Melvin while on the right hand side Shane Reddish was superb putting in a vintage display which had everything you could expect from a right back and more. Lee Thew and Tom McNulty made the difference in midfield, overpowering Flood and McGrath.
Waterford were reduced to ten men as a result of Dundalk's battling display in midfield. Waterford, who by now had made two substitutions lost the ball in midfield to Tom McNulty who slotted a lovely ball behind the defence to David Martin who easily got away from the Waterford defenders but after taking it past Devine the keeper synically took him out of play. Martin would have scored. Devine lay on the ground injured for two minutes. He needn't have bothered getting up, he was sent off straight away. The fifth player to get his marching orders in the last three games at Oriel. Jody Byrne returned to Oriel Park to replace Devine between the posts but one of his first tasks was to pick the ball out of the net.Shane Reddish chased a hopeful long ball to win a corner. The corner eventually reached the far post where Dundalk players played head tennis before it dropped to David Ward who scrambled it past Byrne. Ward's third of the season, all have come at that end of the ground in the second half. From then I sat back and enjoyed the rest of the match in comfort knowing that no matter what happened elsewhere Dundalk were going to be out of the relegation zone tonight and I'll tell you it was a nice feeling
The most pleasing aspect of this win was how Martin and Dunne who started the season in the reserves had adapted to first team football. It was also good to see Lee Thew put in another good display and win the clubs man of the match award but maybe the most satisfying thing about it was that it was so easy and there weren't really any nervous moments once Shane Reddish had made that goal line clearance.
You could make a case for anyone after a performance like that. I was stuck between Thew and Reddish but since Thew won the clubs man of the match award I might as well give Reddish my one.