16th April
The band has abandoned ship we're sinking so quickly. Dundalk FC consigned to First Division next season, a sea of unknowns. Last night we had the chance to give ourselves a lifeline, look at the League Table and look through all our games and all the if onlys. If we had won our last two games we would be nearly safe. If we had won only two out of our first 9 games we would be as good as safe but we didn't and we pay the penalty. It's easy to point to bad refereeing decisions but there have been a couple in our favour as well and if you are depending on those then you are in trouble. The fact is the Dundalk that beat St Pats 2-0, clawed back a 2-0 deficit to draw with Derry, fought like lionhearts in Derry to graft out a 1-0 win, stole a late winner against Shels in Tolka, dominated Cork for 90 minutes in Oriel were not consistent enough to do that every week. 3 defeats to Bohs, 2 to Bray, 2 to Sligo, 2 to Waterford. That is where the problem lies and we have paid the ultimate price unless there is a chain of events so unlikely that Houdini would have quit. And yet after all the crap performances we still had a chance if we won last night. Which Dundalk would we get, the crap one of course.
I can't complain, last Wednesday I selected the team I hoped would play against Waterford and low and behold the same 11 lined out. Williams in goals, then in a new back three we had Melvin, Brady and Thew. Thew was to man mark Iorfa and had a fantastic first half before being substituted. Significantly Iorfa only played well when Thew had left the field. I hope to God Thew left with an injury, if he didn't then it was the worst substitution of all time. Harte played at left wing back with Reddish at right wing back. in the middle we had Hoey, McNulty and Campbell with up front Martin and Ward. Dundalk shot themselves in the foot because when they had the pace of Martin who could finish given the chance they decided to hoof the ball up to him and the infuriatingly inept Ward. When Martin had the ball at his feet he looked like we had a chance, in the air he was dwarfed by Riordan. This caveman football was getting Dundalk into serious trouble as the ball constantly being hoofed forward was always won by the Waterford defence who attacked and put pressure on Dundalk. And even if Dundalk did dominate the first 15 minutes Waterford soon adjusted to our tactics and grabbed control of the game. Derek McGrath and Joe Harkin in the Waterford engine room were attacking the Dundalk defence right and creating gaps. Waterford could have taken the lead early on when Karl Gannon looped a header from a corner onto the crossbar and the rebound fell to Dave Smith whose shot from close range was brilliantly stopped by Steve Williams. Waterford's next major chance was their goal and sadly the blame here must fall to Dundalk's exuberant midfielder David Hoey. After a corner Hoey found himself free in midfield. Ward and Martin were both available but typical of the Dundalk mentality on the night Hoey hammered the ball for no earthly reason miles into the air and straight to towards the corner flag. The Waterford keeper, the impressive Michael Devine collected and hit it back up the field where the ball fell to McGrath who slotted the ball through to Kirby , the Dundalk defence was cut in half and the midfielder stylishly slotted it past the advancing Williams. If only Hoey had showed composure. If only.
I really don't have the heart to write about this match, it was so heart breaking to watch because we were so terrible. We had no direction. We changed to 4-4-2 with Thew leaving at half time to be replaced by Fortune . He came in at left back. Soone after McGinnity replaced Harte and Dundalk were left with three strikers on the pitch with the hapless Ray Campbell moving to the left and Martin on the right wing. Around that time the Blues made it two, Karl Gannon was put through by a good pass from midfield. Dundalk were caught ball watching as Gannon slotted it past the advancing Williams into the path of Dominic Iorfa who hammered it home to make it 2-0. Dundalk complained that Gannon was offside. Tommy Connolly was sent from the dugout because of his protests to the linesman. My heart says he was offside, my head says he wasn't. Gannon was definitely not offside, the only thing is that maybe one of the Waterford players coming out was. The linesman was crap in both halves, anyone looking for a sensible decision would be disappointed. Dundalk brought off the injured Reddish and replaced him with Brennan. Whatever happened after was immaterial. Dundalk fans' minds were focused on Division One. Iorfa did a little bit of skill that delighted the crowd and when he was eventually substituted he hugged everyone on the bench and if given the chance would probably have hugged everyone in the crowd. Maybe he was happy to be leaving the pitch because on it Tom McNulty had lost the head and showed his frustration by booting a Waterford player on the ground. McNulty had a good game though, one of the few.
It's hard to analyse performances but Ward and Campbell were two who did not care. A Dundalk fan who shall remain nameless summed up the thoughts of me and many other Dundalk fans when Ward was coming off at half time. " Wardy " he shouted. Then Ward looked up at the crowd right at the fan who then shouted " stay in the f**kin dressing room ". Finally someone had told him. The only high point of a day of lows. Ward's attitude was summed up in the first half when himself and Martin charged down a clearance by Devine. We screamed to them to get out and Martin was five yards behind Ward at the time. Our attention turned to the play and Melvin won the ball and hoofed it back up field where a Dundalk striker was called offside. It was Ward, Martin having got back before the carefree ex-Irish under 18 international. Dundalk's formation did not get a chance to work. No-one apart from McNulty , Thew and Williams played well, Melvin and Martin had spells but both lost interest when we had once the second goal went in. So there it is, threats all season of relegation have almost certainly been true. Here we go Division One.