Dundalk FC will have serious competition for promotion

On Friday night last Ciaran Kilduff took charge of Dundalk in a competitive game for the first time since he became manager. It was in Ireland's oldest competition, the Leinster Senior Cup.

Dundalk won it easily enough by four goals to nil. The manner in which Dundalk played, left supporters with hope that this could be a good season for Dundalk. But that is a massive statement by me to make.

A long hard season lies ahead of the Oriel Park side. Dundalk must build up a momentum when the league starts in three weeks time. The manager put out many of the players who may become regular first team members of his squad.

Ciaran Kilduff added more players to his first team in the second Leinster Senior Cup game against Usher Celtic again at Oriel last night.

Peter Cherrie lined out in goals as an injury to Enda Minogue kept him out of the first team. It's understood he broke his nose in training just days before the Malahide game.

Dundalk picked up an early season injury worry after centre half Martin Sean McHale was hurt in an incident that forced him off early into the game. It's believed that he turned on his ankle on the artificial surface.

The extent of the injury was not known at the end of the game. It was to be assessed on Saturday. It's believed Sean remained in pain after the game. Sean is on loan from Pat's for the season.

He is seen as a great prospect and will be a huge asset for Dundalk if they are to push for promotion. He was replaced by Vinnie Leonard.

That incident happened after eighteen minutes Vinnie and Mayowa played superbly at centre half. Mayowa was able to deal with anything that came into the Dundalk box. He had a good night.

Peter Cherrie had nothing to do the entire night. The Malahide defence were under serious pressure from the start. Ciaran Kilduff told me after the game, that he would be signing a defender this week.

That would be him finished in the transfer market for this part of the window. Conor O'Keefe and Sean Keogh were excellent as fullbacks.

They raided up and down the line causing endless problems for a beleaguered Malahide defence. In regards to the Dundalk defence, they showed great promise.

In midfield, Daryl Horgan was superb in the centre along with Aodh Dervin. Aodh was my man of the match. He was the engine room in the Dundalk team along with Daryl.

Aodh caused Malahide problems for the entire night. He made a passionate statement about Dundalk after the game when he said he had no hesitation staying at Oriel again this season when he knew he was wanted.

Aodh said it was a no brainer, as he was playing for the best club in the country. If his passion and inspiration can flow through the whole team this season, I think Dundalk could be there at the business end of the season. 

I was really impressed with winger Leonardo Gaxha and striker Dean Ebbe. Both combined so well for one of the goals and could have had two others. It's great to see Dundalk being able to use the wings again.

Leonardo reminded me of a young Michael Duffy when he started at Oriel. Eoin Kenny played behind striker Ebbe. He did as well as any of the players.

His creativity was top class and he opened up the Malahide defence a number of times. He also made one of the goals. Eoin played with confidence throughout the night, I was really impressed with the second half substitutes.

Gbemi Arubi and Harry Groome replaced Parashiv and Ebbe at half time. Muhammad Haris replaced Eoin Kenny midway through the second half.

He really impressed, as did Aiden Russell Vargas who came on with thirteen minutes remaining for skipper Daryl Horgan. Vargas is a Dominican Republic underage international.

He really grabbed the attention for the thirteen minutes he was on. He also managed to get on the scoresheet. I can see him doing a lot for Dundalk this season. Last year's academy keeper Sean Molloy has departed the club.

Although he just managed to get one game for the first team last season, he really impressed in a season where Dundalk had four different keepers with none of them impressing.

In fact, it was the selection of keepers Dundalk used that caused them so many problems last season and contributed to the side getting relegated.

Dundalk conceded 49 goals in the league campaign. Dundalk do have Sammi Saffaei as a backup keeper as well. He was with the Academy team last season. Ciaran Kilduff is very happy at the way he is progressing in the build up to the new season.

Dundalk skipper Daryl Horgan put his side in front as early as 11 minutes. Aodh Dervin cut the Malahide defence to pieces with a fabulous through ball. It fell to Daryl, who finished the ball to the net from close range.

Aodh put Eoin Kenny in the clear on 25 minutes. Kenny shot narrowly over. The goal of the game arrived on 38 minutes. Leonardo Gaxha went running down the right. His pinpoint cross found Dean Ebbe in the box.

He volleyed home to put Dundalk two up. Again Aodh Dervin was involved in the creation of the goal. He had put Gaxha through on the wing to make the crucial pass. Dundalk were totally dominant in the second half.

They killed the game off as a contest on fifty two minutes. Eoin Kenny sent Aodh Dervin in with a superb pass. Dervin turned on the ball in the box to shoot home. The fourth goal came right on time.

Aiden Russell Vargas was fouled in the box by Malahide defender James Farrell. Having won the penalty Vargas took it. The Malahide keeper moved to his left to parry the ball away.

But Vargas was in swiftly and strongly to finish the rebound to the net. It was a good finish. Again scoring goals was just not what Dundalk could do no matter what team they were playing last season.

Thus it was a useful run out for Ciaran Kilduff's team. The manager has told each player that they are being given an equal chance to prove themselves to secure a place in the first eleven.

Leonardo Gaxha and Dean Ebbe certainly caught the eye. Ebbe looks like he will be able to bang the goals in. Muhammad Harris looks like he will be very good. He can score goals as well.

Aiden Russell Vargas will give Ciaran Kilduff a good headache if he can stamp his authority on games in the way he played in the last 13 minutes of Friday's game after coming on as a sub.

Another youngster Sean Keogh will only continue to improve this season after getting a good run in the first team from July last season. He has been given a professional contract.

It's great to see Academy players being signed up in this way as it means they have guaranteed stability. For the club, it also means that other clubs just can not walk in and sign up the club's best players.

Over the past few years they lost some players they should never have. Now the club is stating its intent that this will not be allowed to happen anymore. The Academy is the lifeblood of Dundalk FC.

It's also a launch pad for the club to produce the players it needs to get back to the top of Irish soccer. It's imperative the club gets back to the Premier Division.

But there is little point in going up and coming straight back down the following year. Dundalk will have serious competition in the race for promotion. Cobh Ramblers will I believe be a major force.

They are owned by American investors and have signed strong experienced players who could get them promoted. On Friday night they found themselves two nil down against Kerry FC in the Munster Senior Cup.

But the Cobh men came roaring back to win the game 4-3 in extra time away from home. This example of never giving up is a vital characteristic for any side who wants to be successful. Keep an eye on Cobh this season. They will be there or thereabouts this season.

Athlone Town were hammered 5-0 by Premier Division side Sligo Rovers last Saturday. I would not read too much into that result. They will be battling at or near the top as well. I'm told that UCD will also be a major force.

Led by former Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers player Ronan Finn the Belfield Bowl side will be there. They looked as though they were powering their way for the relegation-promotion play-off place last season.

Their league form dipped rather badly near the end of the season. They were knocked out of the first division playoffs stages.

Bray pipped them for the key chance to get out of the Division, losing out in the end to Drogheda in the big playoff final. The Boynesiders of course won the game easily and remained in the Premier Division.

But UCD may be adding strength of experience to their team this season. There are reports that Richie Towell may be joining the Belfield side and will join Ronan Finn in helping the university this season battle for top spot.

It is believed Towell genuinely wanted to play for Dundalk this season. If the reports are true, it seems that the fact Dundalk are training at night now rather than during the day, just meant he could not join Dundalk for logistical reasons.

Money was not the issue. Richie from what I understand just wanted to play for Dundalk to thank the club for helping him so much in the launching of his career in 2012 and the success that followed.

It's a great pity he could not have joined Dundalk as he would have been a huge asset to the Oriel Park side. There was a lot of negativity from some Dundalk supporters on social media about the story that he was returning.

I would have the opposite opinion. But for sure football is a matter of opinion. I can give mine and others can equally give their own.

I was very surprised to see in the national media this week that Pat Hoban could be on his way out of the Brandywell. The report said that Derry were in a battle to keep Hoban.

Shamrock Rovers are being mentioned as one of the clubs who want Pat. However, he still has a year left on his contract to go. Rovers have also been heavily linked to ex Bohs striker Jonathan Afolabi.

Derry would be entitled to a transfer fee if Pat did leave. Keith Ward returned to Dundalk for the fourth time in his career this week. He left the club at the end of last season.

He had been playing with Irish League side Glenavon in the North. Keith will bring experience that is needed to Dundalk and will of course be a help to Ciaran Kilduff.

Paul Doyle signed for Drogheda on Friday. The former Dundalk midfielder was constantly hit by injury during his time at Oriel. He never experienced that before. One theory being muted is that the artificial pitch may have played its part in Paul's injuries while at Dundalk.

There was great shock in Dundalk on Saturday as news hit that Martin Hasty, son of the late great Jimmy Hasty had died earlier that morning.

Jimmy was famous for being a one-armed player and leading Dundalk to their first league title in 1962-63. Martin is survived by his mother Margaret, extended family and friends. Jimmy Hasty was shot dead by loyalist gunmen on 11th October 1974.

He was a totally innocent victim. In May 2023 Martin spoke of the screening of a documentary on his dad's life and death called ''The Extraordinary Story of Jimmy Hasty''.

Martin said it was very hard to watch again. ''I'm proud of everybody who played their part in making the UEFA documentary happen, especially Dundalk Football Club and the people of Dundalk.'' Last year the documentary won the most precious award any film or documentary can win. It won an EMMY award.

In a heartfelt message sent out by Paul Hasty, he said that his brother Martin had passed away peacefully at 4.14 am on Saturday morning. He said he and close family members were by his side comforting him.

''Thanks, everyone for the prayers, messages, texts and phone calls. Martin has come through a lot lately. But his time was up. Martin is now at rest with his Daddy Jimmy looking after him.RIP Brother. We will not have your craics, your jokes or smile again.''

It's been revealed that the Directors of the Supporters Trust recently met with Dundalk Football Club representatives, including owner John Temple.

The Trust board in a message to their members at the weekend told them that they took the opportunity to highlight that their objective is to financially support Dundalk Football Club, if and when support is required and as agreed by members of the Trust.

The Trust board say that the club representatives informed the Directors of the Trust that Dundalk Football Club is sufficiently funded at this time. The Trust executive says that their organisation remains ready to financially support Dundalk FC in line with club objectives.

The Trust collected over 100,000 euro before Christmas from ordinary supporters. It's great to hear that the club is fully funded at this time.

But it says a lot for supporters that they have given the Trust over 100,000 euro to be used by the club if and when it is needed.

Virgin Media Sport have been given exclusive rights to show League of Ireland games for the next three seasons. In a move announced on Thursday, it caused some amount of shock at RTE headquarters in Donnybrook Dublin.

Virgin Media will broadcast one live League game a week. There will be times when it will show two games over different nights live.

At last, the league will get the proper attention it deserves. I presume that Virgin Media will be paying a nice funding sum to the FAI for getting the exclusive broadcasting TV rights.

It also emerged that SKY TV had also shown a keen interest in getting involved in showing League of Ireland games. Possibly down the line, they will get involved.

Dundalk must get back to the Premier Division as soon as possible. The balance of power regarding the club being a major force in Irish soccer has been weakening since 2019.

Teams in the top tier attract the top players and higher crowds usually. I believe Dundalk will attract good attendances this season. There were over 800 supporters at the Leinster Senior Cup game on Friday.

Having said that Premier Division clubs get a grant of around 350,000 euro a season from UEFA. First Division clubs only get 70,000 euro.

Dundalk should have received or will receive  350,000 euro for last season. The chance of getting into the financial wonderland of Europe lies in the Premier Division not the First Division.

The gap between the Premier Division and First Division in terms of strength of clubs widens every year. Dundalk must get back to the top flight as soon as possible.

Finally, during an interview I did with Ciaran Kilduff after the game on Friday night, he told me he was delighted with the crowd that were there.

''They really got behind us. I hoped they enjoyed it. It meant a lot to the players and staff to have such a great crowd here for the 17th of January. It felt like a proper game of football.''

Have a great week. Be careful out there. Please look after yourselves and each other.