20th February
Dundalk lost last night to title contenders St Pats Athletic on a cold night in Richmond Park. Dundalk will feel aggrieved at some of the decisions made by Dublin ref John Feighery who sent off Shane Reddish but let some worse challenges by Pats players go.
Dundalk made one change from the team which beat Sligo 8 days ago with Lee Thew returning from injury to replace Ciaran Dunne. Thew slotted in alongside Fortune with McNulty on the right wing. However McNulty was intent on drifting infield leaving acres of space on the left hand side of the pitch for Pats' impressive left wing back Keith Doyle. Thew seemed to have put on weight in his layoff and it showed as he was not as mobile as he had been before his layoff but realistically it was a battling display from the Dundalk midfield whose main purpose was to try and stifle the strong Pats midfield trio of Gormley, Osam and Martin Russell.
Good chances were few and far between in the opening half. Brady and Gollogly trying to mend their errors of last Thursday both played well but Ian Gilzean was always going to be a threat in the air. The trickery of Trevor Molloy did not cause as much carnage as it normally does in the Dundalk defence and to give credit to Gollogly he did a good job on Gilzean with Brady calming the threat of Molloy. You still had the feeling with Gollogly that the next howler is not too far away which is really not fair on the player. I think he's just nervous and is probably better when there is only one option available. Give him time to think and he panics which is a sign of nervousness. Keith Doyle was whipping some dangerous crosses in from the left and Dundalk were lucky that Pats could not get the key touch on the end of them. Dundalk did not really have any chances. Colin Fortune and Ray Campbell ventured forward to help the attack on occasions and Byrne had a half chance but the goal did not look like it was coming. Byrne eventually retired with around 15 minutes to the break with what looked like a recurrance to his knee injury. Lets hope he won't have another enforced absence. Martin replaced Byrne but there was no height up front with Ward and Martin getting no change from the best defence in the league. Hawkins, Lynch and the rapidly improved Stephen McGuinness. The best chance of the half fell to Pats shortly before the break when a well worked move saw a cross from the right come perfectly onto the head of Ian Gilzean and his powerful downward header was brilliantly saved by Steve Williams. This was the save of all saves that any keeper would be proud of.
Pats tried to up the tempo after the interval but their exuberance was soon killed by strong Dundalk defence with Pats reduced to long shots which never threatened Steve Williams. Pats withdrew Ian Gilzean who had lost his tussle with Gollogly and replaced him with the pacy Martin Reilly. Reilly made more runs down the channels and stretched the Dundalk defence. Dundalk still made the odd break forward and squandered a magnificent chance on 54 minutes when a lovely interchange of passes between Ward, Fortune and Martin saw the ball slipped through to Tom McNulty who miskicked from inside the area with only the keeper to beat. This was a stern warning to Pats that they could not afford to miss any more chances and it was the last good chance that Dundalk got. Ray Campbell was injured and replaced by Ciaran Dunne with Dunne straight in on the left wing. Dundalk's chances of holding on were dealt a severely unfair blow on 64 minutes when Shane Reddish was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence. The second was no more than a light tip and was a travesty considering there had been far more intentional fouls committed by the team in red. Eddie Gormley had even had a kick at David Crawley in the first half when Crawley was below him on the ground but Eddie did not even get a word of warning. Reddish had been a bit overkeen in some of his challenges just like the rest of the Dundalk players but they always went for the ball which was not the case with some of the Pats players. Jumbo Brennan came on for Thew and moved in to the vacant place at right back. However on 74 minutes Pats got the breakthough when a ball down the right was miscontrolled by Crawley and let run through to Reilly who had time and space to pick out Russell who bundled it over the line to make it 1-0. On reflection it was a stupid error by Crawley. Pats had a goal disallowed 8 minutes later, apparently for offside. More gaps appeared in the Dundalk defence which lost confidence after the goal but referee John Feighery was still awarding free kicks against Dundalk players who won the ball fairly . The Pats players did their bit by falling down like the proverbial sack of potatoes. In fairness to Pats their midfield came out on top in the second half with Russell filling the space left by the sending off. Gormley had one more chance in the 92nd minute but again Williams was the saviour with a fingertip save. At the end of the day Pats had the better of the play but Dundalk will be disappointed that they were reduced to ten men before conceding their goal.
A lot of indifferent performances. In the face of adversity Padraig Gollogly fought back well with a good display to silence some critics [myself included]. Brady also did well while McNulty was the best of the midfielders. Steve Williams also has to come into consideration after some heart stopping saves. Fortune and Thew had quiet enough games while Soupy and Ward did not get in it. Crawley cost us the match so I would have to give the award to either Williams or Gollogly.