The Commentary Box: The Dundalk youngsters have got to learn to take their chances

Dundalk threw away the chance of going four points clear at the top of Division One on Friday night as they led 2-0 with just four minutes left in a vital game against Treaty United at Oriel Park.

Two very soft goals allowed the Limerick side right back into a game they never looked like getting anything from. They came away with a vital draw. Dundalk went into the game without the injured goalkeeper Enda Minogue.

He was badly missed, as it was two mistakes by the usually very reliant Peter Cherrie that cost Dundalk the game. Instead of going four points clear at the top, Dundalk are now just two points clear of Cobh Ramblers.

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Dundalk also had other players missing through injury. Conor O'Keefe, and Mayowa. O'Keefe was injured in the Kerry game while Mayowa was still out with the hamstring injury he picked up in Ballybofey against Finn Harps two weeks ago.

Dundalk also lost Norman Garbett through injury after only coming on as a sub. And to make matters worse Sean Keogh was injured just before the final whistle.

None of the media knew that Enda Minogue would be missing on Friday. Dundalk had understandably kept that quiet. But it was revealed an hour and a half before the start of the Treaty game.

It later emerged that Enda had broken a finger in the Kerry game last Friday week. The break was not discovered for a couple of days after the game.

Unfortunately, it's a bad break and looks set to keep the Dundalk keeper out of the game for at least four weeks. He is a huge loss. Mayowa will miss the Bray game next Friday but should be fit for the next league game the following week.

Ciaran Kilduff says the injury to Enda was hopefully medium rather than a long one.''He fractured his finger in the Kerry game unknown to both him or anyone.

He was training away with it. He went for a scan and it was discovered that Enda had sustained a spiral fracture. He broke it in Kerry. He came to training on Monday and Tuesday.

He had issues with the finger and went for the scan. There is a spiral fracture. It was the worst possible news for a short-term injury. It's a matter of weeks. It won't be months. It is an injury that if he was risked now then it could be months.''

The injury list has thus lengthened at Oriel. It's very early in the season for this to have happened. Ciaran Kilduff has such a young side at his disposal. More experience is needed.

Keith Ward started for Dundalk for the first time since he returned to Oriel. I thought he had an excellent game. He was played in behind striker Dean Ebbe. The move by the manager worked well.

Ward was also given the job of taking some of the corners. They caused havoc in the Limerick defence. Sean Keogh played very well at left-back. Aodh Dervin was slotted in at right back in the beginning.

He got a bad knock early in the game. It looked as if he would have to be replaced. But Aodh is made of stern stuff. He just needed a couple of minutes to recover. He had a storming game after that.

Sean McHale was top-class at centre half. Dundalk have found a real gem for this position. He is on loan from St Pats for the season. 16-year-old Vinny Leonard continued to shine as Dundalk's other centre-half.

I thought that the Dundalk skipper Daryl Horgan was once again top-class on the wings. Eoin Kenny was very much involved in the action from the off.

But once again the Dundalk youngster did find himself in with a number of goal-scoring chances. He failed to capitalise on these.

The Dundalk youngsters have got to learn to take their chances when they get them. I have no doubt that Eoin Kenny will be banging in the goals soon enough. It just takes time.

He must learn to be patient and not allow himself to become frustrated as many strikers do if they go through a spell of not being able to put the ball in the net.

Dean Ebbe got his second goal in a week. This will do his confidence no harm and confirms Ciaran Kilduff's prediction that Dean will score a lot of goals this season.

Last year he was the top scorer in Division One. Dundalk broke the deadlock on thirty-two minutes. Aodh Dervin floated a free from the halfway line into the Treaty box.

The Limerick side failed to clear the ball. Daryl Horgan headed the loose ball back across the face of the goal. Ebbe rose high to head home. It was an excellent goal. It showed the cohesion there is in this Dundalk team when playing with confidence.

Ebbe came close just before the break when Ward's corner again found the Dundalk striker. Luckily for Treaty,  the ball went narrowly wide. Dundalk were by far the better side in the first half.

Treaty failed to trouble a Dundalk defence and team that were in complete control, Eoin Kenny should have put Dundalk in front just 18 minutes into the first half when a Daryl Horgan corner found him in a great position just yards from goals.

Eoin met the cross with his head. But the ball hit the ground and went over the crossbar. Dundalk could also have added a second goal just three minutes from the break when Keith Ward knocked over a corner into the box.

Aodh Dervin shot narrowly wide. Treaty just managed one shot on goal in the first half. That was when Lee Davitt had a shot well saved by Peter Cherrie.

Treaty started the second half by going close with a good Robby Lynch effort from 30 yards. Peter Cherrie saved well. They came close again on 60 minutes when Karl O'Sullivan pulled the ball back across the face of goal.

Striker Lee Devitt met the ball straight on the run. He shot over with the goal at his mercy. From there it just looked as if it was going to be Dundalk's night.

Ciaran Kilduff replaced Paracshiv and Ward for Luke Mulligan and Norman Garbett. Garbett featured in 9 of Dundalk's games in the second half of last season. This was his 10th appearance.

Dundalk piled on the pressure looking for a second goal. Daryl Horgan and Norman Garbett had efforts blocked and went narrowly wide.

But the night turned really sour in 72 minutes for Norman Garbett when he was badly injured in a purely accidental incident.

He was only on the pitch for 10 minutes. It's understood that the man from New Zealand picked up a bad injury. It's not known how long he will be out.

Dundalk got goal number two with ten minutes remaining. Aodh Dervin's free into the box was aimed for the in-rushing Eoin Kenny. He failed to connect.

But the Kenny move outfoxed Corey Chambers in the goals as he went for the ball. Dervan free went straight into the net to give Dundalk what looked like the sealing of the game.

The ball went into the bottom right-hand corner of the net. Treaty was dead and buried. But they made a remarkable Lazarus-style revival to get two goals to level the game.

Eoin Martin fired in a long-range effort on 86 minutes. Peter Cherrie appeared to have the ball covered. But somehow it went underneath him and crossed the line.

It was a howler of howler goals to give away. Dundalk were well and truly on the ropes now. Cherrie did take off a good save a minute after the first Treaty goal. He kept out a good Yousef Mahdy header.

But two minutes later the Limerick men got the equaliser they were now pushing hard for. The referee gave Treaty a free; it looked like a terrible decision against Eoin Kenny.

Dundalk failed to deal with Eoin Martin's free. The first Division's leading goal scorer Lee Davitt was on hand to turn the ball in from close range. Peter Cherrie should have stopped the effort.

It was another blunder from the Dundalk keeper. This terrible Dundalk defending allowed Treaty to leave Oriel with a point.

Treaty deserved the point just on the basis of the way Dundalk folded in the dying minutes. It's games like this where a team throws away vital points that can really count at the end of the season.

The Dundalk boss told me after the game that his side are learning with young players on the job a little bit. He is one hundred and ten per cent correct. This team has a lot of very talented players.

They remain unbeaten after four games and still top the division. But with the injury list increasing and the fact that Dundalk's squad have many young and inexperienced players in the panel gives me thought for a lot of worry.

Dundalk now have a serious injury crisis. I just do not think that maybe there is not enough depth in the squad needed to challenge for the automatic promotion spot. The loss of Enda Minogue is a massive blow. Peter Cherrie is a good cover keeper.

I know Peter will not dwell on the mistakes he made against Treaty. He will be fine. But I was amazed at the way the Dundalk team just seemed to melt in those last seven minutes.

The defenders around Peter Cherrie went missing as did the midfielders. The defence was very poor. That Dundalk were able to give away such easy goals is worrying.

The manager told me that his players had learned a big lesson. ''A game is never over even if you are winning by two goals to nil with only minutes left. It's a game where there was huge learning in it.

Look, we will take the result and move on. We did dominate the game. But it's probably like where we got away with a couple of one-nil wins. We have defended well in those early games but not killed them off.

At two nil tonight we might have felt that was it. When we got the second I kind of felt that maybe we should go for the third and the fourth. But I just had a feeling about the game.

Listen, we had a lot of young players out there. They were playing against men all of a sudden. By the end, we had a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old and a 19-year-old in defence.

You are kind of going that it's a tough test for the young players. This is a great place for them to play. But it can also be the worst place to play when there is that huge expectation on a 16, 17 and 18-year-old.

I feel we finally succumbed to it for those five minutes. They got one and obviously, the type of goal made us uneasy. The manner of the goal from Peter's sake. Nobody needs to tell him. He has been around a long time. Look, we have taken it on the chin''.

I asked the Dundalk boss if he did not think Peter Cherrie bore some culpability for the second goal as well.''Yeah, look I will have to look back at the second goal. Peter has been around long enough. He has had such a great career.

He knows. And I know. But Peter is such a huge character. We have to see it out. He is the best in there for other players in there. We will all rally around him.

Everybody makes mistakes. We have a number of players on the injury list. Listen, we have hurt bodies in there. And look, the game was not down to an Enda Minogue. I thought Peter Cherrie was excellent for 86 minutes of the game.

He was calm and composed. He did have young players in front of him. It's been a tough night. It is one which we will learn from. But it stings right now. Sean Keogh has a bit of tightness in his hamstring. Hopefully, it's nothing too major.

It felt tonight as if we were just trying to get over the line, which should not be the case. We are fit and we are strong and that's how we want to finish the game. I am hopeful that Sean's injury is nothing too major''.

''We play Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds next Friday. They are unveiling their new astro turf pitch. It's also their first home game of the season. But look, this league was never going to be straightforward.

If we had even got a third goal, it would probably have been an unrealistic expectation on how I felt the game was heading. Overall we were the dominant team.

But I think there were more levels to it. And I really wanted that tonight. At 2-0, I felt that maybe we could finish the game off strongly. But we did not And that is probably the disappointing thing.

But look, the lads have given everything. We have notched up ten points out of a possible twelve in our opening three games. We are going fine. It's not a crisis or anything like that.

But dropping the two points tonight does hurt. There is no point in me sitting here lying. There are a lot of disappointed lads. I am looking forward to getting Enda back.

He is just as important as Mayowa and the rest of the lads who are out injured. But it's important to stress that we are not dependent on one goalkeeper.

We have a good squad. Listen, I know it's easy to point the finger at Peter. It may be the first goal conceded. But Peter is an experienced man. He is a very important member of our team. He is also our goalkeeping coach.''

Captain Daryl Horgan told me that the result is what it is.''Everybody makes mistakes. It goes in. But the Treaty player should never have had the space he had to get the shot in. There is never just one error in any goal.

There are usually three or four. That's the disappointing side of it. But we were still two one at that point. We should have seen that game out, as we have been doing over the previous weeks.

It's disappointing. We are all disappointed. But we have had a very good start to the league campaign. We have a very young group. We are going to have to keep building, building and building.

No, I would not have taken ten points out of twelve at the start. I would have taken twelve. But the reality is that we have got ten. Now we have got to go for the next three.

All it is about, is three at a time, three at a time. Those two points are now gone. All that matters now is getting three points in Bray.''

''Yeah, the goals we got tonight were good. But we need to score more of them. We are creating so many. We need to score more.

We would then have games dead and buried, where we do not have these few minutes of chaos, where teams we are playing are able to get points from us that they should not be getting. That can't be allowed to happen. But it has.

We need to react to that. It's massively frustrating for everybody. It's been really really tough for everybody in there. There is nothing you can do about it now, bar learn from it.

And that's the next step, young players are going to learn. Do you think we are going to go the whole season and not get a punch on the nose. No chance.

That's naive and that's arrogant. It was always going to happen. So we need to now react to what happened to us tonight. We need to be all the better for it, rather than drop because of it.''

''The youngsters can learn from tonight. It's when you can experience your most important learning moment, unfortunately, when you have your bad day at the office.

The feeling after it, and how shit it feels and how upsetting it is. That's all part of the learning experience. I am happy enough with my own performances.

I have had a number of goalscoring chances that I should have done better for. I have to improve on that. Everything is going okay for me.

But I am not too fussed about myself. What's more important is how the team and the group are doing together. We are doing very well thankfully.'

''There is a way of how you can get your message across to the rest of the team, as captain, on occasions. You can be over the top and you can be angry. That's good at times. You can be measured and calm and that's good as well as captain.

The young lads are going to have to deal with everything. That's football you know. I spoke to the players after the game. But it was just briefly. I did not say anything too major.

We are going to have nights like tonight when we get punched in the nose and nights when things just do not go our way. There will be more time to delve into what happened tonight.

But to be honest, it boils down to very simple things. You just have to take your chances. If we take these, then the game will be dead and buried.''.

''A two-nil lead can often be a tricky lead. You can often have games where you are two nil up and it's back to all or you find you are three two down. That's football and it only takes a second to score a goal.

The game against Bray on their new Astroturf pitch should be good. They have started very well. We are in a young hungry Division with a lot of talented players.

Every team has big strengths. But we feel that when we are on our game, we are capable of beating anybody. But I am sure every team thinks the same.

That's why we need to be the team that's winning every game. We need to be the best. I am sure every other team thinks like that also.

This Division is never going to be easy as everybody has been hoping. There are always going to be tough times.It's important that we all stay level-headed. Not to be too high in the good times. And not to be too low in the bad times.''

Cobh scored five goals without reply against Longford Town. Bray Wanderers beat Kerry one nil in Kerry, and UCD drew with Finn Harps at the Belfield bowl one a piece. Athlone got their first win of the season.

They beat Wexford by a goal to nil in Wexford, Bray's win in Kerry was very impressive. They are mid-table but have a game in hand on Dundalk.

The bookies were making Dundalk even money favourites to win the league at the weekend. These odds are crazy. They are taking it as a foregone conclusion that Dundalk have won this league already.

Well, my answer to that is that Dundalk will be doing very well to win it. I'm not saying they will not win it. But I most certainly am not saying they will. I have a lot of reservations to make me think that they will not. But who knows?

The death occurred of a former work colleague of mine at the weekend of Brendan Cummins. Brendan started in LMFM in 1992 and was Head of Sport from that date until 2017.

I worked as a reporter with Brendan at the station over that period. Brendan was also PRO for the Meath County Board for many of those years. He worked so hard in both of these jobs.

Brendan had a very kind side to himself. That will be so badly missed by all his friends including myself. Brendan was so passionate about the Gaelic Games.

He lived for the GAA and his county Meath. In 2017 Brendan became a freelance reporter and stood down as Head of Sport. I left the station at that time too.

But I could write a book about this man. He was a very good music presenter as well. The music he played on programmes on a Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday drew in huge audiences.

He will be so badly missed by his colleagues who worked with him at the station and in sporting circles all across the region.

Brendan will get a very good mention when I complete my book on my career in broadcasting and the many years I worked in LMFM. May Brendan Rest In peace. And sincere sympathy to his family and friends.

A well-known soccer writer and reporter named Philip Quinn retired the weekend before last. Philip has been an excellent reporter over the years.

I remember how he covered the glory years of Dundalk FC in the McLaughlin, O'Connor and Kenny eras. Philip is a senior member of the Irish Soccer Writers.

He has worked with the Irish Press, the Irish Independent, the Irish Daily Star and the Irish Daily Mail. I often joke with him about being a member of the Dublin media who thinks that life stops beyond Swords.

The banter has always been good between us. I did take a serious issue with Philip on his strong criticism of Stephen Kenny while he was manager of Ireland. I was a strong critic of Philip in this paper.

But Philip never took the criticism personally. Nor was it. He pointed out to me that he often disagreed with my opinions as I did with him. And he was right.

On the night Dundalk were relegated last November Philip came across to me and said to keep the faith. He said that he really hopes Dundalk are back in the Premier Division as soon as possible. Philip said the Premier Division needs Dundalk. I wish him a happy retirement.

It's emerged that Dundalk had a very gruelling return journey home after the Kerry game in Tralee last Friday week. It took the team bus seven hours and forty minutes to get back to Dundalk.

This was because the M50 around Dublin was completely closed when the bus reached the outskirts of the city. There had been a very bad road accident which closed the motorway. There were long traffic delays as a result. The Dundalk bus arrived safely home eventually.

But all on that bus were totally exhausted having played a huge game against Kerry and then totally unexpectedly experienced delays as a result of the road accident. It's on to Bray next Friday. I am looking forward to seeing their new astro turf pitch.

Please look after each other over the next week. And remember to be very careful out there.