4th December
A depleted Dundalk battled hard in Tolka Park and earned a point against a Hoops team who would have moved into third if they had won this game. Talk was rife of more players leaving but Dundalk players had to do a professional job on the pitch and forget personal anguish for the time being. Dundalk made two changes from last weeks game with the sold Mick Doohan and Paul Doolin replaced by Kevin Brady and David Ward. Normally you would expect Ward to return up front and Soupy to drop back to right wing but bafflingly Soupy stayed up front and Ward came in at right wing. Neither had particularly good games but came into it late in the second half.
Rovers had early chances when a Kenny free kick was poorly dealt with but the Rovers attacker headed over the bar from the rebound with the goal at his mercy. Dundalk had a shaky start with Rovers in control early on. Some hair rasing defending saw Rovers have several telling efforts blocked or saved. Mark Kenny who scored a 35 yard rocket last week against Bray was given plenty of chances but was not wearing his shooting boots tonight. On 25 minutes Peter Withnell attacked and took it round a Rovers defender on the far touchline around 35 yards from goal but was brought down. Shane Reddish took the resulting free kick but his cross was poor and the Dundalk fans all groaned, however, to our delight the mishit cross looped over Tony O Dowds head and in off the far upright. A complete fluke if there ever was one but for Dundalk a gift from the heavens. Dundalk started to play well then but were hit with a body blow after 33 minutes when a cross from Woods trickled past the Dundalk defenders to Jason Sherlock who made no mistake from 8 yards. Dundalk pushed forward and got some more chances. Lee Thew and Michael Harte both missed clearcut headers while Peter Withnell's storming run brought no joy to the Dundalk attack. At half time Dundalk must have been reasonably happy despite losing a soft goal
The second half was a tit for tat battle not helped by an absolute disgrace of a referee. Shamrock Rovers fans will point to two penalty appeals. One which could have gone either way and the other, a foul on Sherlock which everybody could see was a clear foul and really should have been a penalty. Dundalk fans will point to the amount of cynical fouls committed by Rovers players on Dundalk players who were approaching goalscoring positions but some of these fouls did not even warrant a yellow card, in the referee's opinion. Dundalk played like they always do in Tolka by breaking out of defence in numbers. Tom McNulty was having a great game in the centre yet on one occasion when David Ward was free on the right inside the Rovers half he elected to go on his own. Apart from that Scotty had a good game. Lee Thew and Shane Reddish were both very effective and Thew displayed a good array of passes which previously had been unknown to Dundalk fans. Dundalk's centre half pairing of Brady and Capper had a couple of nervous moments against a potent strikeforce but coped through the storm with Capper the better of the two. Michael Harte had a quiet enough game but came close with the best move of the match with 25 minutes to go. Brady cleared from defence to Ward who found McNulty who skipped past a Rovers midfielder and progressed into the Rovers half. He rolled it to Harte who danced past two Rovers defenders and hit a vicious 20 yard shot that skimmed just over the crossbar. Minutes before Dundalk had come closer with a mad scramble in the Rovers area when no Dundalk player could get a clear shot in. Rovers somehow got the ball away. Rovers had half chances but no real clearcut miss of note although brave Dundalk defending was the reason for this.
Dundalk made two substitutions with Harte, in a shock decision, replaced by John Sharkey. The injured Peter Withnell was then replaced by the lively David Martin. As Dundalk continue to sell players readily maybe Jim McLaughlin is blooding these players who could be thrown into the real action soon. Withnell had one clear chance before he came off but missed on two occasions while a left foot shot from a Rovers player came dangerously close to the post.
The most disturbing thing when watching this brave performance from Dundalk was that some of these players could be playing their last game for the club. Do the players even know if they are. It's a pity no-one tells them, or the fans, what's going on behind closed doors at Oriel Park because whatever is happening is ruining our club.
No-one had a bad game and my man of the match would be Thew, McNulty or Reddish with nothing betwen the three. I'll give it to Reddish because with rumours about him leaving he genuinely looked upset at the end which was the action of a player who most definitely does not want to go.