11th February
That was the one we needed. I'm not interested in counting how many more points we need, for the moment we are seven points clear of the relegation zone. It was an action packed win. A dramatic encounter which could have finished 10-5 or 8-2 or some other crzy scoreline. The fact is we won and if we are relegation candidates now then so are Bohs and UCD.
Colin Fortune came back into the fold tonight and replaced John Sharkey with Soupy moving to the left. Brian Byrne made a welcome start and replaced David Martin who dropped to the bench. From the start there was chances but on 18 minutes Dundalk took the lead when after a nice display of passing on the left the ball came to Colin Fortune whose speculative 25 yard shot deceived Nicky Broujos and crept in at the near post. 1-0. Soon after Dundalk were to make it 2 with a dubious goal. Colin Fortune did exceptionally well to rob the Rovers player but surely David Ward was offside when Fortune played it through. Ward skipped past Broujos and gleefully tapped it into the empty net. About time we got a lucky break. Sligo showed they were still an attacking threat with two good chances. The first when Steve made a great save from Hutchinson and the second when Hallows hit the post with a long range drive. A Sligo chance was on the cards and after Crawley stupidly lost the ball Rowlands fashioned a chance for Oates who made no mistake from 12 yards. Dundalk came up the field two minutes later and scored a fine goal. The ball was played up to Ward who delayed and slipped the ball through to Brian Byrne who like the Byrne of old dinked it over Broujos to make it 3-1. Could we keep a two goal margin. Not at all. A nice move down the left by Sligo saw the Dundalk defence committed and Hutchinson found an unmarked Rowlands who made it 3-2. The frustrating Gollogly then was robbed outside his own box but Dundalk cleared it away. Still 3-2 at half time.
The Dundalk second half display was indifferent. Crawley again like Derry seemed to think he was Pele trying to take it round all and sunder without lifting his head. Byrne was superb, magnificent and Fortune had a good game. The whole back four had a poor first half with Brady redeeming himself in the second. Soupy was good on the left while Tom McNulty enjoyed the over physical second half but not the best of games for him. David Ward showed glimpses of what he is capable of while Dunne had a good first half but a relatively quiet second. Steve was safe as houses as per usual and made some brave challenges.
Dundalk had a litany of chances in the second half. Ward was slipped though by Byrne but shot wide. Byrne himself controlled a long ball brilliantly but shot wide. Crawley had a pop from 25 yards which was weakly palmed over by Broujos. Soupy had a shot blocked in a scramble and towards the end Ward had a fierce shot saved. Yet while we kept the ball in the corner for most of the last 10 minutes we still let Sligo through for some good chances and were it not for Williams being brave at the end to block Flannery then I could be telling a completely different story.
At the end of the day, the defending was crap and Pats will murder us next Friday if we defend like that but then we still have Brian Byrne whose comeback was worth his weight in gold. The performance was not important tonight, it was the result and we got the three points we wanted
Without a shadow of a doubt, Brian Byrne. He brings the best out of other players, especially Ward and Byrne's performance tonight shows why so many other clubs would love to have him in their starting XI. Now if hadn't gone in for that challenge against Longford ..