Off-field matters dominating supporters thoughts as Dundalk return to action

Dundalk played their first open game of the season against Finn Harps at Oriel Park last Friday night. The game came just as the week's cold spell was coming to an end. As expected in many of these games, it finished scoreless.

Dundalk were without the injured Robbie Benson, Darragh Leahy, Daniel Kelly, John Martin, Greg Sloggett, John Mountney and Robbie McCourt.

Manager Stepehen O'Donnell confirmed to me after the game that he was hopeful the majority of the players will be back for the start of the season in just over three weeks' time.

News on the injury John Mountney sustained last week is expected within the week following scans. It's feared the Dundalk full back turned midfielder will be out for most of the season if he has suffered a recurrence of the injury that sidelined him for a year.

He only returned to the Dundalk side in the latter part of last season. But when he came back he was magnificent. He would be a huge loss if he does miss the rest of the season.

The Harps Game

Dundalk gave their new signings a run out on Friday. Given that O'Donnell used all 20 of his panel, it was impossible to make an impartial judgement on their performances. But given what the manager said after the game, he appears happy with the signings he has made.

O'Donnell told me that he is hopeful of bringing in more new signings before the start of the season. Naturally he would not elaborate on who they are.

He also refused to say which of the injured players will be back for the opening game against UCD on 17th February.
But I was flabbergasted that Dundalk still had so many players out injured from last season.

Robbie Benson, Greg Sloggett, Robbie McCourt and Daniel Kelly all missed the end of the season. Some missed as much as the last ten weeks. I guess the Dundalk boss is not taking any risks with his key players in friendlies such as last Friday.
However I honestly expected to see most of the players taking some part in Friday's game.

Pat Hoban stood out for Dundalk up front. He came closest to scoring early in the second half when a back flicked header came off the underside of the crossbar. Ryan O'Kane was a beacon of light on such a gloomy Friday night.

Anthony Mayo, who came on as a substitute was another player who stood out and Stpehen O'Donnell agreed with me on that.
Stephen Kenny's son Eoin also played well in the second half. I've seen Eoin playing before and I think that in time he will make the breakthrough into the first team.

It was unusual not to see Ollie Horgan in the Harps dugout. Ex Dundalk player Dave Rogers assembled a good panel of players for the game and used all 21 of his squad during the 90 minutes. I saw enough in the game to see that Harps will do well under Rogers.

They pushed Dundalk into their own half for the latter period of the game. Indeed, they would have scored only for the fact that they saw an effort beat Dundalk sub keeper Mark Byrne only for it to be headed off the line. There is no doubt that had it gone in, the Donegal side would have won the game.

But it was a game that always looked like it would end in a scoreless draw. There was a good crowd at the game. There was one estimate of there being three hundred in attendance. To me it looked as if there were upwards of 800 people in attendance. Others agreed with me. This augurs well for the new season.

Stephen O'Donnell also confirmed that his sub keeper from last season Mark Byrne is staying on for the forthcoming year.
Mark was on the PFAI list of players looking for a club during the off season. It's good news he is staying on. I saw Mark play regularly for Warrenpoint in the Irish League.

He is a very good keeper. Mark is also from Knockbridge. I would say he will be competing very hard with Peter Cherrie to be Dundalk's number 2 keeper this season.

Stephen O'Donnell said everyone had come through the game unscathed. He said he had a little bit of concern at the start as a part of the pitch was frozen.

Stephen said he felt all of his four signings did well. He said he had asked for the 7.45pm game as it would give the four new players time to adjust to the games at home in the season ahead. He is confident that the majority of the injured players will be back for the start of the season.

The Dundalk boss says the four new players have great attributes and also the right age profiles. He says they are going to go looking for more new players. But he countered this by saying it was always hard to get players in. Thus, it will be a wait and see game.

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Potential Investors?

On Friday the Dundalk chairman Sean O'Connor told the Irish Independent that Dundalk were on a sound financial footing and that they were not for sale.

On the previous Sunday, LMFM were reporting that the Lilywhites were up for sale following an interview with local journalist James Rogers. It has been reported in local media for the past two weeks that Dundalk made substantial losses last season.
I put in a request to Dundalk two weeks ago to talk to somebody in charge about the financial losses.

I mentioned I would like to possibly talk to the chairman Sean O'Connor about the financial loss reports. But I did not just refer to talking to him. I asked for an interview with any of the key players involved in running the club.

Mr O'Connor told the Independent that when Andy Connolly and Stats Sports took over the club last season that they were always open for investors coming on board. He said that Dundalk have had talks with individual investors at various intervals independently.

But he admitted there is nothing on the horizon. He also dismissed reports that cash concerns have hindered recruitment.
He said that first and foremost the club was not for sale and it's completely false to suggest that the owners of Dundalk were out there offering the club in any way to anybody.

He says they are not looking for investors, but that it did not mean people were not coming to them. Mr O'Connor says that the club has been approached multiple times over the past 12 months by different individuals who wanted to get involved in the club. He said parties had come to Dundalk but that they were not the right fit.

He said the attractiveness of Stats sports was that anybody who has wanted to invest wanted them to be involved in the club as well and so they should be. He said again that there is nothing imminent at Oriel. But interestingly Sean O'Connor would not be drawn on reports the club made losses last year.

This I feel is an issue the chairman should have addressed. The reports are that Dundalk made substantial losses last year.
If these reports are incorrect then his refusal to be drawn on the losses only adds to the belief that they are true.

Player Recruitment

The chairman noted that Brian Gartland had been appointed Head of Football Operations and that he was the negotiator in deals to bring the four new signings to Oriel last week.

O'Connor said that he sat down with Stephen O'Donnell last November and that there were names on a potential players list to bring this season. He says there were only four. These were the new signings that were on the list.

They lost out on a player in the League of Ireland as well. He claimed that Dundalk had not missed out on any player due to financial constraints. I said to Stephen O'Donnell I found it hard to believe they even knew of the names of the four players back in November. He said that they did.

I said to him one of the four had been talking to Derry, but that they did not want him. The Galwegian dismissed my question as being incorrect. But I know that one of the four had been in contact with Derry and that they were not interested.

But I have to accept that the four signings were the only ones on the list, if the manager and chairman say they were.
But it was good to hear that there could be as many as three new signings coming in before the start of the season.

The reports of a possible takeover were strengthened during the week as it’s known the owner of a Championship club was in Dundalk. His club are linked in reports of being interested in taking over Dundalk.

But as Dundalk are denying that there is no takeover, the Championship club owner was obviously in town on other business.

The owners also need to step up in their communications with local fans. They set up a committee last season to look at how the issue of the development of Oriel could be looked at. It met on only a couple of occasions. That's so disappointing.

And they left out an avid Dundalk fan who is with her family at every Dundalk game. Fianna Fail Senator Erin McGreehan attends most games at Oriel. She would be a person who is at the heart of government and who the club should surely have on any committee relating to the redevelopment of Oriel.

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Emmanuel Adegboyega

Dundalk lost out on the signing of their academy player Emmanuel Adegboyega to Drogheda United towards the end of the last week. Emmanuel's progress is being closely monitored by a number of championship clubs such as Norwich City.

Stephen O'Donnell says that Emmanuel was in training with Dundalk over the past couple of weeks. The player is from the town. He says that unbeknown to Dundalk, Emmanuel was forging his own path. He was at training with Dundalk on Thursday.

O'Donnell said Dundalk believed they were in negotiations with the youngster. But having been at Oriel training on Thursday, he signed for Drogheda on Thursday night.

The minimum Emmanuel can be offered is €180 a week. Whatever Dundalk offered him was not enough and he signed for Drogheda. One can only conclude he was offered more than Dundalk were prepared to offer. It's also likely that he will get a lot more game time at United Park.

Stephen O'Donnell says he is glad to see Brian Gartland taking up his new role as Director of Operations. He says he was very keen on getting him involved in some role at the club before the season ended last year.

He added that Brian is a club legend and that he is loved by the supporters. He says he is very intelligent and that will be a great asset to the club.

Stephen says his main aim of the season is that the team are competitive. He says he wants to get a team out every week that's very competitive .He also says that it's important for the club to remain as injury free as possible.

Remembering Lost Legends

Dundalk lost another legend Joe Martin during the week and perhaps one of the greatest of them all. I have interviewed Joe on a number of occasions over the years.

I was at the Civic reception for the 1952 Dundalk team that won the cup. It was held nearly 50 years later at the town hall.
There is great footage of the reception on Facebook on the Dundalk North End and Friends Page.

Joe speaks proudly of the goal he got for Dundalk in the final. He sings the song that was written about him getting the all important goal. He was a very nice man. He had his own program on Dundalk FM and was always in good form.

Dundalk also lost a lifelong supporter during the week. Benny Casey will be sadly missed by all who knew him. He was a member of the Tie-Wrap gang. They are a great band of Dundalk supporters who follow the club everywhere.

Artificial Pitches

Finally the FAI have advised Derry City that the 3G pitch at the Ryan McBride Brandywell stadium is unlikely to be fit for elite level soccer beyond the coming season.

A report released by Derry City and Strabane District Council has revealed that there are concerns about the existing Brandywell playing surface, including player welfare and potential health and environmental issues.

The council owned pitch was officially opened in March 2018 and has the necessary FIFA certification which remains valid until April 20th this year.

The report showed that the yarn on the pitch was showing signs of wear and identified a tuft loss problem across the entire field, especially around the halfway line.

Derry want to revert back to a grass pitch. UEFA has established a working group concerning the future of all 5G pitches amidst growing concerns over possible health and environmental impacts of microplastics which are created through play on the rubber crumb infill.

Dundalk's artificial pitch was installed in 2017. What's happening in Derry mirrors concerns over the future of Dundalk's artificial pitch. The pitch is coming to the end of its life span. It will more than likely have to be either replaced by another artificial pitch or a grass pitch next season.

The cost of a new artificial pitch could cost as much as €1.5 million. That's for another day. Have a great week. Look after each other. And remember everybody to please be careful out there.