The Commentary Box: Dundalk could not get the winner they deserved

Dundalk came away from the south-east on Friday with a scoreless draw against Wexford FC at Ferrycarraig Park. There was a lot of disappointment in the Dundalk camp after the game when they came away with just a point.

But I think that when the dust settles, manager Ciaran Kilduff may well look back on this game as a point gained rather than two points lost. With six games to go, Dundalk remain six points clear at the top.

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This was because nearest challengers, Cobh Ramblers, were held to a one-all draw by Kerry FC. Dundalk came into the game without Eoin Kenny, Vinny Leonard and Sean Spaight.

All three were away on international duty. Luke Mulligan was in the squad but had been on standby most of the week for a call-up to the Ireland Under-17 team. In the end, the call-up never came.

But Luke is still carrying an injury, and although in the Dundalk squad on Friday night, he was not used. That was the smart decision. He had started against Kerry.

Dundalk were also without goalkeeper Enda Minogue. He has suffered a slight setback with the finger he broke three games into the season.

Enda will be fit for the Bray game next Friday night at Oriel. Andy Paracschiv was also not in the Dundalk first eleven. He had played against Kerry the week before.

One wonders if he was injured as well, and it was decided not to use him even as a sub. Thus, Dundalk were short five players from the side that started against Kerry.

Norman Garbett started his first full league game since sustaining his bad injury at the start of the season. Peter Cherrie, Dean Ebbe, Conor O'Keeffe, and Harry Groome all returned.

Groome returned to the centre of midfield. Dean Ebbe played in front of the midfield, linking up with Gbemi Arubi. Conor O'Keeffe slotted in very well at centre half. He did very well in beside Mayowa.

JR Wilson and Declan McDaid were the two full-backs. Groome and Dervin played at centre midfield with Daryl Horgan and Norman Garbett on the flanks.

Gbemi Arubi played as the sole striker. Dundalk made three substitutions in the game. Keith Ward and Shane Tracey replaced Dean Ebbe and Norman Garbett on 67 minutes, while Rohan Vuaghan replaced Daryl Horgan on 58 minutes.

Apart from the fact that Dundalk were down three players away on international duty, the amount of players who only trained once during last week due to slight injuries was very worrying.

Shane Tracey was one of these players. He is a great young player. You certainly would never have thought he just got the one session in, looking at the way he played when he came on as a substitute in the second half.

Conor O'Keefe only trained the once. But he was a star, as said already, in the centre of the defence. Luke Mulligan only managed one training session during the week.

Add in the week before, he only got one session, and one can see that he is not getting the correct preparations for the games as a result of injury. It's nobody's fault.But Luke Mulligan is a player who Dundalk need big time with just six games to go.

Mayowa only trained once last week. This was because of a head injury he picked up in the Kerry game. For me, Mayowa starred on Friday night. He was outstanding the entire night against Wexford.

Add all the players only being able to train once, coming up to the Wexford game and the fact that the manager had three key players away on international duty, one can see how restricted Ciaran Kilduff was last week in his preparations for the Wexford game.

But the biggest setback of the night came on the 58th minute of the game when Daryl Horgan sunk to the ground in agony with a calf muscle injury. Daryl has played in every game for Dundalk this season.

The bravery of the man was there for all to see as he continued to stand when the injury, but he was in dire pain. You could see he was in big trouble. But he only went down when the ball was put out of play.

Daryl could not continue. The disappointment was etched all over his face as he was helped off the pitch. One wonders if the thought, as he was helped away, that Friday night may have been his last game of the season.This is a serious injury.

The manager had to wait until over the weekend to see how bad the injury was. From first sight, as to how it affected Daryl, it looks at best that he will miss the Bray game on Friday night. Then it's a matter of just hoping he can recover.

But Dundalk will not risk their captain if it means it could leave Daryl worse off down the line. My own opinion is that, at best, he may be able to take part in the last couple of games before the end of the season.

But it will be the doctors that will decide when he returns. But it emerged after the game that Daryl has been struggling with this injury for some time. Last week, he missed one training session as the injury restricted him from taking part in it.

Daryl had been very effective in midfield before he went down with the injury. He was getting crosses in from the wing. He also was getting into good scoring positions.

Daryl did say at half time that his calf was playing up. The manager is hoping that it does settle down quickly. But he told me that it was not like Daryl to come off.

Kilduff added that Daryl would have stayed on if he could have. Thus, he said he was sure they were dealing with something.

If it is the worst-case scenario and their captain misses out on at least a couple of games, I am sure he will still be giving great leadership and encouragement from the sidelines to ensure Dundalk can get over the finishing line and finish in the automatic promotion places.

Mayowa is a player just one game away from suspension. Early on in the first half, he received a booking from referee Declan Toland. It was a disgraceful decision. He was not that close to an incident when a Dundalk player was fouled.

I was waiting for the Wexford player to be booked. Instead, the experienced centre half got the yellow card. It was unbelievable. Last week, the referee in the Kerry game was bad.

This time, Declan Toland made a baffling decision. Word after the game was that Mayowa was booked for charging into players. In the incident he was booked, Mayowa was not involved. He was a distance away.

There was no charging from any other Dundalk players at the time. Thus, it can not have been a case of mistaken identity. This is Mayowa's ninth yellow card. One more and he will be suspended for one game.

Mayowa is a key man in Dundalk's charge to automatic promotion. On the law of averages, he will get a yellow card again. This would deny Dundalk a key defender in the centre of the defence.

When I told Mayowa he was now on his 9th yellow card and just one game away from suspension, he was distraught.

This shows how much he cares about helping the team to return to the Premier Division. Poor refereeing decisions can have massive impacts on how a club does. This decision of booking Mayowa could be one of those.

Wexford had just provided the Dundalk players with a nice dinner after the game, and Mayowa was at the bottom of the stairs, after his meal, when I told him the bad news that he was only one game away from a one-match suspension. Yellow cards seemingly can not be appealed to the FAI. They should be. This card should be overturned. But it won't be.

Dundalk will not get their international players back until Thursday. This is ridiculous. This is again putting Ciaran Kilduff's team preparation for Friday's game against Bray.

Add to this, the players who again may only be able to get one training session in, as last week, then Bray will come into Friday's game with a distinct advantage over Dundalk.

The manager told me that his side were at the time of the season when they were picking up cuts, bruises and knocks. He admitted that when he did not have his full squad, the players who had trained just once last week had to play through Friday night's game as the side try and get to the finishing line.

The players are putting themselves on the line in the battle to get Dundalk back to the Premier Division. Some are putting themselves through the pain barrier because Dundalk did not have a full squad last week.

Norman Garbett was a sensation on the wing. He caused Wexford a lot of problems in both the first and the second half. Norman was the player Mick Doohan, a former league winner with Dundalk, was raving about last week.

He worked well on both flanks. He had a couple of efforts that went very close. One effort was agonisingly only inches away. Ciaran Kilduff was right about Norman with his views as a player.

Since he returned to the Dundalk team, he is gradually finding his way. The young New Zealander is a great prospect. He is one of the players who can propel Dundalk back to the Premier Division.

Gbemi Arubi was another player who I felt was top class. Okay, he did not score. But he had the Wexford defence on the rack when he played in the striker role.

He was so unfortunate not to score early on, when his shot came within inches of the post early in the game. He held the ball up so well. It's a great pity Gbemi missed too much of the season through injury.

He has only returned in the past couple of months. But he has been a sensation. His best goal came when he scored with a terrific goal against Cobh about 10 weeks ago.

He has scored more since then. He can hold the ball up so well and then either create an opportunity for himself or another player. Gbemi does have a habit of beating three players and then coming back straight, trying to beat the same three.

Inevitably, he loses the ball somewhere along the way. This is an area of his game he must work at. But he is an excellent prospect.

He reminds me of Georgie Best at times, the way he takes the ball around players. Gbemi will be a top-class striker. Hopefully that will come at Oriel.

Harry Groome was my man of the match. He controlled everything that went through the centre. He also created plenty of chances.

Harry is a class player and is one I have no doubt would be excellent for Dundalk in the Premier Division, should they get there.

If they do not get promoted, I would be very surprised if a Premier Division team do not snap him up. Harry is a real footballer in the traditional sense.

He has great skill. If he can reproduce the same form for the next six games, then I can see Dundalk topping the table at the end of the season.

Peter Cherrie was a huge steadying influence in goals. He set out his standard after just seven minutes when he took off a terrific close-range save. Wexford rarely threatened. But they were dangerous at times.

Dundalk could just as easily lost this game as they could have won it. The Dundalk defence looked stable and strong. I believe this was helped by the fact that Peter Cherrie was on the line. His command of the box was excellent.

He was called upon to make three good saves. It emerged that Enda Minogue was unavailable to play after suffering a slight problem with the broken finger that kept him out of the game for ten weeks earlier in the season.

Enda was not listed on the team sheet produced an hour before the game. But he was out on the pitch taking part in a training session with Peter Cherrie and Sam Safei.

The injury to Enda lessened the pressure on the manager as to who he would have in goals on Friday. That was after Enda had a poor game against Kerry and conceded three terrible goals.

Personally, I think Ciaran Kilduff would have gone for Cherrie in goals. But he never had to make the choice. Once it was clear Enda would not be available on Friday, there was no big decision for the manager to make.

Cherrie was a certainty to start. What happens going forward for the next six games is a matter of conjecture. I believe Cherrie must be kept in goals. He should be able to keep the Dundalk defence as safe as is humanly possible.

On Friday, Dundalk got their clean sheet. With six games left, who is not to say Peter can not keep six clean sheets, which takes them to the end of the season? Enda returns from injury next week.

Dundalk vice-captain Aodh Dervin told me that Dundalk had been looking for all three points. "We are not looking at how other teams behind us are doing. We are just concentrating on ourselves.

"We had a chance tonight to extend our lead at the top, with Cobh drawing. We did not take it. I am not disappointed, because we played very well. But of course, we are all disappointed when we had the chance to strengthen our lead at the top.

"There were times in the game when we completely dominated. But in the end, we did not get the three points. The result from Kerry drawing with Cobh does not bother me. It does not bother me.

"That's not me being blunt or anything. If you keep on looking over your shoulders, then you will fall on your knees. If we do our job, we will be ok.

"We had players carrying injuries out there tonight who only trained once this week. If you look at Daryl. He led from the front tonight, but what he had to go through to even play tonight was amazing.

"We are all on the same hymn sheet. People might be agitated that we only got a draw tonight. But it is going to come. We know what we have done all year. We have lost just two games this season.

"It is going to come. But we must just take each game as it comes. We have Bray on Friday night. We owe them one after they beat us at the Carlisle grounds last time. They are a very good team.

"We need a big crowd in Oriel. We need them to cheer us on. They have supported us home and away all season. We just need to keep going. We are on the final stretch. I love being a Dundalk player, and I also love being at Oriel.

"That's why I signed a new two-year contract. It was a no-brainer for me when the manager asked me if I was staying. That was just after he arrived at Oriel. My baby niece is only ten minutes away. So there are a lot of reasons for me to stay."

Have a great week. Please be careful out there. And remember to look after each other.