It's a shame things have not worked out for Jon Daly

The curtain came down on Dundalk's season at Oriel Park when they went down to a 1-0 defeat to champions Shamrock Rovers, in front of a crowd of 2,444 people on Sunday...

It will be Dundalk's last game in the Premier Division at Oriel for some time, as they are relegated to Division One. The last game of the season happens in Weaver's Park next Friday when Dundalk take on Drogheda United.

They play in the cup final the following weekend. Then they face the promotion-relegation play-off. It's just a one-off game. The clouds of relegation still hang over Dundalk's neighbours. Dundalk are already down.

Dundalk deserved to get something from the Rovers game. They were very unlucky not to go ahead on 15 minutes when Jad Hakiki had an effort that came back off the underside of the crossbar.

John Mountney also had an effort that was saved superbly by the Rovers' keeper Leon Pohls. It was Dundalk again right on half time when Robbie Mahon's stinging effort was again saved by the Rovers keeper. Rovers should have gone in front a minute into the second half when Neil Farrugia missed from 7 yards. Ross Munro took off a great save.

Rovers won it on 59 minutes when the Dundalk defence failed to clear a freekick into the box. Dylan Watts fired home a superb shot to the net. He took full advantage of the loose ball. Within a minute Dundalk nearly levelled.

Mayowa headed a superb cross that looked bound for the net. Goalkeeper Pohls once again took off a great save. Rovers controlled the game from there to the end. They remain two points behind leaders Shelbourne going into the last game of the season.

If Rovers beat Waterford in Tallaght, a draw is no use to Shelbourne against Derry in the Brandywell. Rovers have a vastly superior goal difference. Shelbourne must beat Derry to ensure they win the title for the first time in 20 years. Otherwise, Rovers will win their fifth league title in a row.

After the game, John Mountney told me he had still not come to terms with the fact that Dundalk have been relegated. He is out of contract next season and could easily be snapped up by another club. He says he is being asked by players what's happening next season.

John says he has no idea with the uncertainty still hanging over the club that it will survive, because of the debts left by previous owners who knows what is going to happen? John says that what was going on off the pitch regarding the financial position of the club did have a huge effect on the players.

They did not know if they could meet the rent on their house. They had worries about where the next meal would come from. That uncertainty was sorted with the arrival of new owner John Temple who ensured there was never a week the players were not paid.

John says the pressure the players were under off the pitch took its toll on him as skipper. As I thanked John for all his help over the last 12 years he has been at Dundalk, he broke down in tears. John Mountney loves Dundalk FC. Hopefully, he will be in Oriel next season. 

Manager Jon Daly revealed after the game that he will be returning home to Scotland next Saturday after the Drogheda game. The Dundalk boss also accepted that he had to try and take some of the pressure off the players with events going on off the pitch. Jon says he will be looking for a job in football in Scotland.

He has been in the League of Ireland football for four years. He wants to join up with his family again. I thanked him for all the help he has given me since he arrived at Oriel.

I have to say that he is one of the nicest and most decent managers I have ever dealt with at Oriel. It's just a shame things have not worked out for him. But he was in effect given an impossible task when he arrived in mid-season.

It's been a difficult time for all Dundalk supporters and everybody connected to the club since they were relegated to Division One the weekend before last. For new owner John Temple it must be a very busy time as he goes about salvaging the task of ensuring that Dundalk can remain viable as a club.

It seems all but certain that Dundalk will be entering SCARP a process that allows the club a period of time to begin sorting out the debts it owes to its creditors. SCARP is a small company administrative rescue process.

It is a formal insolvency process which enables a restructuring of a business operation by way of a compromise arrangement with creditors over debts that they are owed. SCARP will help small to medium-sized companies that are under serious financial pressure and have serious mounting debts.

State creditors including the revenue come under the SCARP orbit as of course do trade creditors, and banking and other financial creditors. If a company owner thinks that their operation may be viable if the pressure of the debts they owe can be dealt with, then SCARP is the place to go.

It's believed that Dundalk owes Revenue around 200,000 euro. Should they insist on getting their money now, then SCARP can not help. They are the one creditor who can insist on being paid in full now if the money they are owed is overdue.

But they can also enter into talks with their debtors if they feel the company has a chance of being salvaged. John Temple insisted from the time he walked into Oriel that he had to assess if the club could be viable. He made no promises that the club could be saved automatically. Nor could he.

But now as the dust settles he will be in a position to see if there is a future for Dundalk FC. Mr Temple did say last week that he believes that Dundalk will be an entity next season and that the club will be able to play in the First Division.

The new owner added that he believed that what he called the mess that he has inherited could be cleaned up. The main thing he added was that the club must become sustainable. He confirmed that the indoor pitches in the YDC are operational to the public.

He added that there has been a great take up of people who want to use them. They are open every evening from 7 to 10 pm. He confirmed that there will be cutbacks at the club. He says that the club has people on the payroll who are doing similar jobs at other clubs for free.

He says the club has to look at ways of getting the wage bill down to allow the whole club operation to become sustainable. The owner revealed that the club is spending 30 to 40 per cent more than Shelbourne. Revenue is owed 200,000 euros. Gardai are owed 50,000.

Mr Temple says he paid 16,000 euros himself for insurance recently. He also paid seven thousand euros for electricity, and six thousand euros for an injury picked up by Dan Pike. He also said the wage bill is 30,000 euros a week.

He added that he is not a millionaire and that contrary to reports he was not a front for anybody. He confirmed that he owns 80 per cent of the club and that there are four other investors who own the remaining 20 per cent.

There are nine players under contract for next season. And a new manager will be needed. John Temple says that he was very proud of the reaction of supporters after the club were relegated. He knows how big the club is and is confident that he can turn things around.

He added that he has met many of the creditors and that their response has been amazing. John added that the money owed to revenue does not emanate from Brian Ainscough or his time.

The total loss the club owes is 1.5 million euros. He confirmed that he has to go to the Director of Corporate Enforcement due to due diligence There are many questions that must be asked.

Stephen O'Donnell is owed money as is Wilfried Zahibo and Louie Annesley. The club had agreed at the time to pay Louie Annesley that he would be paid money for certain international games he played with Gibraltar.

Mr Temple says that the model that the club was working under can not be sustained. He is of course right about this. In the First Division, attendance will fall because of the distance.

If Dundalk go into SCARP they must be out of it within three to four weeks because of the licensing requirements from the FAI. It's not like a normal company that can stay with SCARP for five to six months. The FAI want Dundalk to be out of SCARP within three weeks.

Before they go into SCARP, the money owed to Stephen O'Donnell, Wilfried Zahibo and Louie Annesley must be sorted. The money owed to the three combined is considerable.

If the club go into SCARP the FAI will be happy for Dundalk to either clear their bills or come to a deal with creditors on payment of the bills. If the club gets a certificate to say they are clear, then they will be able to get their licence.

John also revealed that parents had been paying for their children to play in the academy. He said he came into the club on the premise that he would have to pay the players wages. John says that the academy staff do not get paid a wage. They do get paid expenses.

John said it was shocking to find out parents paid for their children to play for the academy. He added that the money coming from the academy was going into the main account of the club. This he said was wrong. There should be a specific bank account for the academy.

The academy from now on would have a separate accounting system from the club. He said the academy teams have not been getting the exposure they should be getting. This he says will change and they will get full exposure from now on.

Academies are a separate entity. Last week Shamrock Rovers Academy were able to register as a charitable organisation. They will be able to get considerably more funding. It's been cleared that other League of Ireland clubs will be able to go down the same route.

News of this broke just seven days ago. He says that he would like to see his shareholding drop down to 20 per cent and get the right investors in. The Dundalk owner has confirmed that he will be staying on at Oriel Park next season. He says he wants the club to grow and get new success. 

The new Dundalk FC Trust was officially launched on Friday night. The aim of the Trust is to be able to fund the Academy if possible. It's also aimed that the trust will provide funding to the club where necessary. There have been 30,000 euros worth of pledges to the new organisation.

It began with a spectacular video presentation of Dundalk's achievements in the past. There were also video messages wishing the Trust every success from John Gill, Vinny Perth, Martin Lawlor, Alan O'Neill Chris Shields and many others. It was a very professional presentation.

There was a very good explanation to the audience by members of the executive about the Trust. One person raised the possibility of the Trust purchasing Oriel Park.

The idea was rightly knocked on the head by Nicky McCourt who paid tribute to the owners who are the Casey family. He pointed out that were the lease not there then liquidators could have seized the ground if Dundalk owned or the Trust owned the ground. 

Media officer with the trust Gerry Lennon said he hoped that people had got their questions answered. ''I hope people's fears or reservations have been allayed tonight. We are doing what we think is the right thing to do for Dundalk FC going forward.

We have set up the trust with the best efforts and with the best intentions. We are not doing it for ego. The members of the Trust executive are all long-term or lifelong supporters of the club. It's great we also have a younger group of supporters as well who attended.

They are very keen to get involved also. The potential of the trust is really good. It's for the future of the club. If we can get the numbers that are potentially out there to sign up, we can make Dundalk a fantastic club.''

''We could make Oriel Park a super ground. There is no end to what can be achieved. There has been a lot of negativity in the past couple of months. Let's make this a positive movement going forward. Some people have been trying to create negativity between the 1903 Dundalk Supporters Club and ourselves.

But there is none. Most of the members of the Trust are also members of the 1903. We have no beef with the 1903. It really would be for the better of Dundalk FC if there was a unified approach by both.

If people out there want to do what they think is fine then that is ok. They are entitled to do so. What we do not want is a fracture or division. We are willing to talk to anybody. That is from owners or from different groups.

If there are people out there who have ideas and who would like to get involved with us, they will be most welcome. We are up and running. We have opened a bank account. Our company is up and running A lot of money has come in over the past few days.''

''This is an independent trust. We are there to support the club going forward in any way. We are not the owners of the club. We just want to be part guardians of Dundalk FC. All we want is good governance and keeping the club secure for the future.

Owners will come and go. So will we who are in the executive of the Trust. But this is a perpetual trust. If people support it, there is no reason why it can not be there for decades. And the aim will be to help the club and make it prosper.''

''There are fantastic opportunities through the Academy if we can get the right model. It would be non-profit. We are hoping to work with people to get this right. We would hope to bring more funding into the club from whatever way we can. To become a member of the Trust it is going to be mostly available online.

We will have a website that is coming along shortly. It will be Dundalk FC Supporters Trust. It's just not up and running next. We are on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter now known as X. The address is @dfcupporterstrust.

All the information for the banking details will be available through our various social media channels. Pledges can be made online. There is also a text number where pledges can also be made.

They can be made by either WhatsApp or text. The number is 0858124545. All people have to do is give their name and the amount of money they wish to pledge. We will come back to them and contact them and help them with the details to sign up''.

We are hoping to have a meeting to get the Trust up and running in the next four to six weeks. Really we hopefully can get up and go as soon as possible. We have got some great people involved already working away setting things up.

We got more people who came forward tonight who wish to perform the same role. The potential for the Trust is enormous. If people are willing to support it as best they can over the next few years, we will be able to do anything for Dundalk FC. It's a big club.

It has a long history. This club can be great again. If the club ever needed emergency funding that will be down to the members. We would certainly have to have a meeting and get soundings from them. But look we are not there to pay debts. We are there to support the club into the future. ''

The question about how important the Academy will be was stressed throughout the meeting. The point was strongly made about how the Academy was losing talent. One point was made about where a women's team had five former Dundalk FC players on it.

The five got their photo taken together after winning a major trophy because they were members of an underage Dundalk FC academy team at one stage. Another contributor said that there was no doubt that the club over the past twenty to thirty years had not looked after the younger players in the town.

It was said that this would have to stop. There were many examples of young players ending up playing for Dublin clubs and who were from Dundalk and its hinterland. There were calls that this had to stop. It's been a problem for many years.

There are too many examples, where the clubs were losing young players from the town both male and female. The club was also losing potential players to other clubs who come from the natural hinterland of Dundalk and surrounding areas.

Shamrock Rovers Academy is to be recognised as a Tusla-regulated childcare service as part of a novel project that is expected to revolutionise the funding of youth players in Irish football.

When the scheme gets up and running Rovers Academy will receive financial support via the National Childcare Scheme (NCS). It is worth more than two euros for each hour that a boy or girl is coached.

The scheme could more than double the time coaches have with underage players in League Of Ireland academies. The increase in coaching time will proportionally increase the funding received.

For the NCS to be effectively integrated into football academies, clubs need to adapt their structures. The current average of eight hours of coaching could be doubled by increasing the number of training sessions midweek and on weekends and organising additional coaching camps during school holidays.

The potential is there for clubs to receive over 200,000 euros a year by maximising contact hours provided there is a strategic and structured approach to implementation. The scheme will apply equally to boy's and girl's teams.

To avail of the funding, academy coaches must undertake additional training and vetting to meet Tusla requirements. Shamrock Rovers have set up a community foundation company limited by guarantee for the academy. The company is separate from the club which will manage the operation. The scheme has received support from the Minister for Sport Thomas Byrne.

The 1903 Dundalk FC supporters club have launched a new tiered Membership Fundraiser scheme. The money raised will go towards infrastructure and community projects at Oriel Park, as chosen by members. The 1903 says their new model will begin January 5th. More details of the scheme can be obtained on the supporters club Twitter page @dfsc1903.

Dundalk FC say they are proud to support a campaign for Maxi's Law. It is a community-based campaign to end discrimination in Mental Health services. All people no matter what their wealth is or status attending an HSE facility seeking support with Mental health issues should get the support they need.

Maxi's family relations, Sean and Mags Kavanagh walked behind the Maxi's Law banner around the pitch at halftime In Sunday's game at Oriel during the game with Shamrock Rovers. They highlighted the community based campaign to end discrimination in the country's mental health system.

Have a safe week. Be careful out there. And remember, please look after each other. As Maxi would say. ''Come on the town''.