Dundalk should've progressed further in Europe as they had the quality to do so

Dundalk bowed out of the Europa Conference League last Thursday when they were held to a 2-2 draw against KA of Iceland and lost 4-2 on aggregate over the two legs.

Dundalk were facing a tall order from the first leg going into the game at Oriel being 3-1 down. But sadly it was the same old story as Dundalk gave away sloppy goals just as in Iceland the previous week. This was the reason for their downfall.

The plain fact is that the defence is just leaking goals at will. The philosophies of all the great managers at Oriel in past times like Stephen Kenny, Jim McLaughlin and Turlough O'Connor were always to get your defence right at first.

But Stephen O'Donnell has not done this and as a result he now finds his side out of Europe and a loss of €550,000 as a result of crashing out of Europea Conference League.

The Dundalk manager made four changes from the team that were well beaten in Iceland the week previously.
Louie Annesley, John Martin, Ryan O'Kane and Connor Malley all started.

Greg Sloggett, Hayden Muller, Robbie McCourt and Johannes Yli-Kokko all dropped to the bench. This time the manager went with four at the back. The previous week he went with three.

At times O'Donnell had four in midfield and two up front. Other times he had a five man midfield and one up front.
KA surprised Dundalk as they went at the home team from the start.

But it took a mistake by Louie Annesley that gifted the Icelanders their first goal. The Dundalk central defender could not deal with a drooping ball. Faroe Islands international Joan Edmundsson was able to fire home. That goal effectively killed off the tie.

John Martin levelled the game when he popped up with a great goal just before half time. KA sealed the game and booked their tickets for Bruges when they were awarded a penalty with nine minutes remaining. Hallgrímur Mar Steingrímsson had no problems converting the spot kick to the net.

Dundalk levelled the game with two minutes remaining with a header through a crowded goal mouth by Greg Sloggett.

Stephen O'Donnell urged his side to go forward in search of more goals. but at that stage it was a fruitless effort. KA deserved to go through. They were the better side on the night and were unlucky not to get out of Oriel with a win.

Dundalk should have won this game and gone through to the next round. KA are no world beaters and Dundalk have the better players.

KA sit seventh in the Icelandic league. They have lost more games than they have won. And they have a -9 goal difference.
There can be no excuses for Dundalk. KA were a more physical side and Dundalk could just not cope with their strength.

When he saw his side were not having the impact they should have, the Dundalk manager failed to make key substitutions to freshen up the team.

Johannes Yli-Kokko replaced Darragh Leahy on 71 minutes. But the remaining three substitutions only came with six minutes remaining when KA got their third goal.

Darren Brownlie replaced Andy Boyle. Cameron Elliott replaced Daniel Kelly while Greg Sloggett came on for Ryan O'Kane. John Martin was my Dundalk man of the match.

KA had three shots on target and scored twice. This was very  similar to the game in Iceland the previous week. Thus over the two legs KA had six shots on target against Dundalk and scored five.

Unlike the previous game where Dundalk dominated, it was KA who had the most  possession which amounted to 63 per cent. Dundalk had 37 per cent. KA had four shots off target to Dundalk's one. This says a lot.

Stephen O'Donnell said he had no regrets at making the three substitutions so late. He said he also had to think ahead for the Shelbourne game three days later on Sunday. O'Donnell then said it will not be hard to go again after the defeat.

The Dundalk boss continued to say that this was where Dundalk were at this moment. Amazingly the Galwegian said he would realistically have been happy with one round in Europe from where Dundalk are at. He said how the team do domestically is their main target and realistically that was where the club were at.

The Dundalk manager said the club has to see where they are domestically. He said Europe this season was always a bonus.
The Dundalk boss accepted that it was a tie Dundalk could have won.

He said that in simple terms you can not concede five goals over two legs and go through and that at any level a team can not make a mistake that was made by the Dundalk defence against KA . He added that it left the side with a mountain to climb.

The Dundalk manager said that had Dundalk gone through to face Brugge in the next round and at this stage in the team's development it would have been a bit too much. He says it was great from a financial perspective to win a round in the competition. 

He said that it was the team's aim to get back to this stage again next year in Europe, adding that Dundalk have a massive domestic challenge now and they must now go and attack and get the European place for next year.

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Lack of Ambition?

I was amazed that the Dundalk boss said that it would have been a bit too much for his side to go through and play Brugge. This portrays a lack of ambition.

Stephen O'Donnell is not a man who lacks ambition. Maybe this was not what he meant to say. Was the Dundalk boss really suggesting that losing to KA might be a positive thing on the club's progressive journey because playing Brugge in round three might be too much of an ask.

Pat Dolan in his Saturday column in the Irish Daily Star said it was very obvious what was wrong with too many of the Irish clubs in Europe and that is that they are too soft. He said that it's clear that League of Ireland clubs are clearly not technically good enough and that Irish managers lack imagination.

Dolan said that any Irish dressing room that is not prepared to go to war for their badge and supporters is unforgivable.
Pat Dolan has a point in all of this.

League of Ireland clubs must be determined to go as far as they can in a European competition. Dundalk have beaten top clubs in the past. Stephen O'Donnell led many Dundalk teams into the glorious European battles of the past.

I disagree with Dolan that Dundalk lacked the ambition to go through to round three. The plain fact is that they were just not good enough. The better side won over the two legs.

The manager was happy with his team's performance on Thursday as he was the previous week. Well if I was manager I would not be happy.

O'Donnell knows Dundalk are vulnerable at the back. They have been since the start of the season. Dundalk lost out on €550,000 because of poor defending. This is the reality. And it should never have happened. They have enough talented players in their team to have gone through to round three.

The tie was lost in the first leg in Iceland. However, Dundalk can have no complaints. You can not expect teams to go far when the defending is so poor.

Transfers

On the same day that Dundalk were going out of Europe because of bad defending, Emmanuel Adegboyega was signing for Championship side Norwich City across the water.

Manny played with the Dundalk academy under 19 team last year and was in pre- season training this year with the Lilywhites. He was negotiating a new contract with the club and was offered a professional contract.

While the negotiations were continuing, Dundalk lost contact with Manny. It soon emerged that he had signed for Drogheda United. He was on amateur forms up until a month ago when he signed for them as a professional player.

In a matter of two weeks Norwich agreed a transfer fee with Drogheda with the young man. His transfer fee has not been disclosed.

Manny told the Irish Daily Sun newspaper that he left Dundalk as he did not believe that he was going to get regular first team football at Oriel.

With Andy Boyle getting a new two year contract and with Louie Annesley signed as a centre half also, Manny obviously felt that he was not going to break into the first team.

With Darragh Leahy also being able to play as a centre half he obviously felt he would spend the season on the bench.

Quite correctly he took his chance with Drogheda. He formed a strong defensive partnership with Conor Keeley.
Dundalk lost an excellent defender to their local neighbours and most bitter of rivals. 

Daryl Horgan signed for Dundalk last week. The previous week he was playing with his old team Wycombe Wanderers in England. They had tweeted at the time that Daryl was just training with them while he weighed up his options.

It was felt he would stay in the UK. However Dundalk got their man. He is a vastly experienced international player who has also built up legendary status with Dundalk from the Kenny era. He will be a great player and leader for Dundalk.

The club has strongly denied a post I made on social media during last week that the funding to bring Daryl to the club was made by an outside investor. I obviously respect the club's denial. My belief at the time was that an outside investor did provide funding to bring Daryl to Oriel.

If the club did provide the funding for Daryl to arrive back at Oriel, then it shows that there is a lot more money in the coffers than we all thought.

The money Dundalk will get for winning one round in the Europa Conference League is usually not paid out by UEFA until Christmas. The FAI then pay Dundalk. I doubt if that practice has changed.

But surely Dundalk must have the money in their coffers to give Nathan Shepperd a new contract. He is not looking for that much of an increase.

Maybe they can spend some of the money I thought they did not have by providing proper ladies toilets and make  a starting job on improving the away end for visiting supporters.

Dundalk have also signed a new midfield Sam Durrant from Sheffield Wednesday. He has also played at Blackburn.

KA celebrations 

KA were in great after winning the game. Their manager Hallgrímur Jónasson was also very happy with the win.
He said Dundalk played well against his team on Thursday and that 2-2 was a fair result.

He was pleased with his own team's performance, but said that Dundalk put them under a lot of pressure. He spoke to his players about the crosses Dundalk make. This was proved right as the two goals Dundalk got came from crosses.
The manager said that home side were the better team on Thursday night.

The KA boss said their early goal was a great help for his team. He said that it was a dagger to the heart of any hopes Dundalk had to get back into the tie, saying that it made things a little bit easier.

The manager said that Dundalk made them work all the way over the two legs to get to the next round. The KA boss said that he was encouraging his team all the time not to panic. He said this worked for him.

But he said Dundalk were the better team. He said that they still had the two goal lead despite John Martin's equaliser.
The KA boss said the worst thing they could have done was to panic and let Dundalk come at them. So they went at Dundalk with the intention of keeping the pressure off themselves.

The Icelandic manager said that the pitch was a little bit more different than his side were used to. The KA boss continued that they had problems with playing the ball around as a result of the pitch as the ball moves very fast on the Oriel surface.

The Icelandic manager said they trained on the pitch on Wednesday evening. He said that it really was a different type of  pitch than any others like they have in Iceland. He said when his side kept the game to a draw half time he was not so worried any more.

The manager said that he was annoyed at conceding a second goal to Dundalk, but accepted that he had his homework done on Dundalk and that it all worked out well in the end.

The KA boss says his club have not been in Europe for 20 years. He said they were enjoying their adventure in Europe which now takes them to Club Brugge in Belgium. He accepted that his side faced a very difficult task, but he is looking forward to it.

Dundalk are going to find it very difficult to qualify for Europe next season given the number of clubs in the hunt for the two or possibly three places. Have a good week and please look after yourselves.