27th January
On the 4th of December in the same ground against Shamrock Rovers Dundalk made two late substitutions giving late runs to relatively untried youngsters David Martin and John Sharkey. I speculated that maybe they would be thrown into the deep end later in the season. Little did I know that two months later they would be the driving force behind a 2-1 win against landlords Shelbourne in Tolka Park.
A poor enough attendance with a good support from Dundalk watched this game as Shelbourne, seemingly going nowhere in the league faced up against a Dundalk side who was missing two of their best players from the previous Sunday, Lee Thew and Tom McNulty. In their place came new signing Colin Fortune who had a quiet game and Ray Campbell, whose move into the centre saw Jumbo Brennan return on the left wing with the strikeforce of Martin and Ward untouched. Kevin Brady also missed out with suspension and Padraig Gollogly returned in the heart of defence. The first 20 minutes was poor fare with more mistakes than passes. Neither team could really get time on the ball to make chances apart from an early Shelbourne oppourtunity when Greg Costello was put through but Steve Williams got down well to tip it round the post. The opening goal was to come on 34 minutes. Dundalk were starting to get into the game and slick passing in the centre saw the ball being given out to Ray Campbell on the left wing. He jinked past Heary and delivered an inch perfect cross onto the head of David Martin who glanced it perfectly into the bottom corner of the net. Shelbourne had a five minute spell after this where they could have equalised but a resilient Dundalk held out until half time.
Shels brought on Richie Baker at half time and after 10 minutes he started to show prominently up front. Yet Dundalk had the best chance in the opening passage of the half. Jumbo Brennan dribbled the ball over the half way line and put David Martin through with a slide rule pass. Martin chased but shot straight at Gough and he could not get proper connection on the rebound with his head. Shels then started to threaten with the Dundalk central defensive pair of Melvin and Gollogly doing outstandingly well. Reddish and Crawley were doing well on either side, the latter finally seemed to be able to pick out players with some of his passes. Dundalk were defending in numbers and letting Shelbourne come at them which was playing with fire. Eventually Shelbourne pressure paid off when Declan Geogeghan burst into the area and Padraig Gollogly stuck his leg out and took him down. Gollogly's first error of the game was punished cheekily from the spot by Stephen Geogeghan. Although Shane Reddish had a free kick saved after it looked as though Shels were going to win it. Without two saving tackles by Noel Melvin they probably would have. Dessie Baker was starting to get space on the right with a jaded Jumbo Brennan not covering back. Melvin's first block came when the Dundalk defence played Geogeghan onside but despite being on the wrong side of him Melvin got back to clear it away.
The second Melvin block came just before the end of normal time when Shels played the ball across the box to Dessie Baker whose shot was goalbound until Noel slid and got his legs in the way of a powerful shot. Just on the end of normal time John Sharkey was introduced for a tired Brennan and just after the board was held up indicating 3 minutes left. I immediately thought back of the first league meeting between the teams when Shels scored the winner in the 95th minute. Shels were pushing forward until suddenly a long ball was cleared to David Martin just inside the Dundalk half. He hooked it on to John Sharkey on the left who with only his second touch of the game controlled it on his chest and raced goalwards. After taking a few touches to compose himself he delightfully dinked the ball over Alan Gough from just inside the penalty area thus sending the Dundalk support into delirium.
Dundalk had won and have not lost on the road since November. The key four players for Dundalk were probably their back four while David Martin was impressive again up front. Ciaran Dunne and David Ward had quiet but effective games while Ray Campbell was superb. The added injection of players from the youth team has really revitalised Dundalk and if this form can continue then we are definitely going in the right direction, not just for now but for the future as well.
I just can't get away from Noel Melvin despite a superb performance by Ray Campbell. Melvin played the real captains role and was the best player on the pitch and he along with Gollogly made Sheridan and Geogeghan look ordinary.