The Commentary Box: Dundalk at a crossroads as problems on and off the pitch continue to mount

Dundalk's defeat to St Pats last Friday by three goals to one sent the Oriel Park team to their third straight defeat in a row.
It also saw them conceding 10 goals in their last three games.

They came into the game on the back of their mauling by Galway in the cup the week before.

Despite manager Stephen O'Donnell carrying out major surgical changes to his defence as he tried to prevent another heavy defeat, it simply did not work.

Archie Davies remained at right full while Hayden Muller moved from full back to centre half.

Greg Sloggett started the game and was given the central defenders role. He normally plays in the centre of midfield.
Robbie Benson was placed at left back. The two who lost out from the defence in Galway were Darragh Leahy and Darren Brownlie. He missed the game due to illness.

Paul Doyle was at last restored to the centre midfield role, while he was accompanied by Johannes Yli-Kokko and  Daryl Horgan.

Daniel Kelly rightfully kept his place in a more forward role, while John Martin returned in a forward role on the wing also.
Pat Hoban played in his normal position of centre forward.

The four players left out of the side were Darragh Leahy, Connor Malley, Sam Durrant and Darren Brownlie.

But the changes just simply did not work as Dundalk imploded early in the second half giving away two terrible goals and although they got a goal back from Daniel Kelly with 15 minutes remaining, the sending off of Robbie Benson for a second yellow card with eight minutes remaining ended their hopes.

Dundalk were the better side in the first half and should have been in front at the break. Daryl Horgan was easily Dundalk's best player on the night.

Daniel Kelly was always dangerous and came close twice in the first half.

Pat's had the ball in the net as early as six minutes with Chris Forrester seemingly giving Pats the lead. It was disallowed for offside.

Pat's were dealt a blow when they lost their full back Axel Sjoberg through injury.

He was coming back following a long term injury spell.

Forrester could have put Pat's ahead with six minutes remaining until half time but Yli-Kokko got back to make a vital block.

Johannes carved the Pat's defence open with a neat ball to Daryl Horgan. He shot narrowly wide.

Dan Kelly then had a blistering shot from a Hoban cross. The Pat's keeper Dean Lyness took off a terrific save as the Pat's goalkeeper played his first part in a game he played a pivotal role in Pat's winning.

It was hugely disappointing for Dundalk that they could not score despite their dominance. Indeed all they had to show for was the Kelly shot being saved by Lyness. 

But four minutes into the second half it was really all over as the awaited implosion by Dundalk happened.

Dean Lyness's kick out was allowed to drift over the heads of all the players.

Centre half Hayden Muller made a dreadful mistake as he failed to clear the ball.

Thomas Lonergan had the simplest of tasks to score.

Once again a Dundalk defence had gifted a team a goal. That goal came on 48 minutes. Within nine minutes it was two.
Again Lyness kicked the ball over the heads of the Dundalk midfield and defence. Lonergan shrugged off a Greg Sloggett attempt to clear.

The Pats striker was in again for his second goal of the night. He skilfully lobbed the ball over the head of Shepherd and into the net. 

Sam Durrant and Connor Malley replaced Yli-Kokko and Martin.

The changes made little difference for Dundalk as they were out of the game at this stage.

With 15 minutes remaining Pat's made an enormous blunder to allow Archie Davis get a cross into Daniel Kelly.

He made no mistake to find the net.

Any hopes Dundalk had of getting a goal back were killed off when Robbie Benson was sent off for a second yellow card offence with a foul on Chris Forrester.

Dundalk had never looked like scoring up to this anyway after Kelly's goal. The sending off made little difference.
With four minutes remaining,  Dundalk made their last two substitutions. Paul Doyle and Daryl Horgan were replaced by  Alfie Lewis and Ryan O'Kane.

For the life of me I just could not understand why Ryan O' Kane had been kept on the bench.

The Dundalk youngster was left on the bench by the manager against Galway also and only brought on late in the game. Again it was the same in Richmond Park.

Pats got in for a  third goal seven minutes into extra time when Greg Sloggett brought down a Pat's player in the box. 16-year-old Mason Melia stepped up and showing great maturity slotted the ball past the Dundalk keeper.

Dundalk have now conceded 10 goals in three games.

It's shocking form and one like a side that would be the kind shown by a side slipping down the table towards the relegation zone.

The pressure is mounting on Stephen O'Donnell as his side crumbles in form in front of everybody.

But apart from the Galway cup game his comments on his side have left me scratching my head.

Stephen O'Donnell said that giving away soft goals has been his side's main problem.

He seems to think it should not cloud other areas in the team that are not functioning either.

There are no areas of the team that are doing well.

John Murphy told this column a few weeks ago that a team must have a good spine. Dundalk just do not have that.
The spine of any side starts with the defence. It has been shocking. O'Donnell says they have to work on this. But you cannot work on it while his defenders Andy Boyle and Louie Annesley remain out.

Even if they were available the manager just does not have the players in the current squad to sort the problem out.

It shows how desperate Dundalk were on Friday when they moved Robbie Benson from the middle of the park to full back and Greg Sloggett from the middle of the park also to center half. The experiment just did not work.

O'Donnell said he thought Dundalk dominated the first half. Well I would not agree with that at all.

Dundalk did have the better of things in parts in the first half. But Pats for the most part were well worth the win against a very poor Dundalk side.

O'Donnell said his team gave away two silly goals just like they have been doing all season and then they were chasing the game.

But nobody can deny that this Dundalk team are in freefall now.

Yes, the defence is a major problem. Why do so many players seem to get injured during the week? Why do many of the new players who were brought in at the start of the season seem to be just not good enough.

I have asked Stephen O'Donnell about this, but he denies that there have been poor signings made or poor loan ones as well.
I'm sorry to say that two of the on loan signings were just not good enough. Their loan deals were not renewed by Dundalk at the end of June.

The midfield has been weak which again forms part of the spine of the team.

This too has contributed to the awful slide Dundalk are in now.

The Dundalk manager said that they got themselves back into the game after conceding the early second half goals. Well I did not see it that way.

Once Pat's had the two early second half goals they were never troubled by the Oriel Park side.

That was until Daniel Kelly scored after Pat's gifted Dundalk a goal.

The Dundalk boss said he felt his side brought the right attitude and belief that they could not lose.

Remarkably the Dundalk boss said that Pat's were very lucky that they came out with the result that they got.

True Pat's were far from brilliant. However overall Dundalk were very poor. I'm not taking away from the first half performance

How Stephen O'Donnell believes Pat's were lucky to come away with the result they got is beyond me.

Pat's were poor, yes. But they were much better than a Dundalk side that are in free-fall.

Dundalk's dreadful away league record continues. They have only won five away league games all season.

They have scored only 14 goals away from home in the league also. They have also only won once in Dublin this season. That was against UCD much earlier in the season.

Their away record is dreadful. That is not going to change from now until the end of the season. 

Stephen O'Donnell said that from a control point of view his side dominated the game on Friday.

O'Donnell said that Dundalk needed to be going in winning  at half time having dominated the first half.

The same could also be said of the Shamrock Rovers game in Tallaght or the game against Derry.

But the problem it seems to me is that the manager does not realise the confidence of his players has slowly ebbed away in the past number of performances.

Again I was very surprised when he said that his sides were dominating in their league games.

He told me they are dominating control in the games as he told others. I do not accept this as I did not agree with him when he said Dundalk's performance against Derry was top class even though they were beaten 3-1. 

He disagreed with me that Dundalk's six remaining games were lame duck ones with nothing at stake.

He insisted there will never be lame duck games while he is in charge. O'Donnell said there will always be something to play for.

The manager said Dundalk are six points behind fourth place. And he emphasised that Dundalk still have to play Bohemians and Shelbourne.

Thus he believes they can still get the fourth position slot in the league which might lead to Europe. I'm afraid to say it, but Dundalk will simply not finish in fourth place. They might even be lucky to finish sixth, given their awful run of form.

When I asked the boss if Nathan Shepherd would be in Oriel next season and if there was any news on his contract.

The boss said that Nathan was no different to any other players. He confirmed the club has not entered into negotiations with any players yet whose contract was up at the end of the season.

When asked did he want to keep Nathan he told me Nathan was a good young player, but was no different to any other player.
He said that they will assess the whole team when the time comes.

He continued that he was not naive to think any club could not be talking to any of his players who are out of contract at the end of the season.

Asked if he had any idea about how the club was doing financially O'Donnell said no.

He told me that this was far away from his thought processes at the moment.

I asked O'Donnell about a young centre half Mayowa and what his situation was at the club. Last season he played very well in the few games he had with Dundalk but then he went out on loan to Dungannon Swifts.

I was taken aback when the manager said Mayowa was not registered with the club at the moment and that he was carrying an injury.

On the injury front the manager says that Andy Boyle has a calf muscle injury. He told me he had a calf muscle injury on the other leg earlier in the season and now he has done the other knee. He will be out for some time.

The manager said his side are not far away from the top three teams.

He continued that Dundalk just need to be better from a structural and a defensive point of view.

O'Donnell is emphatic that there is far more scope to improve in the current squad than there was in last year's team.

He said this was from an age profile point of view and from a potential of view, continuing that there has to be a cast iron belief among the squad of winning things.

They must have a belief of being able to win games away from home. He said that this may take time and that he can definitely see potential in his team going forward.

I can see where the manager is coming from when he speaks about the potential in the squad.

However whether he can keep most of the present squad depends on the financial position of the club.

Were the club to allow Nathan Shepherd or Archie Davis go it would leave supporters very angry.

The club needs new investors to join them. It does not look as if the current owners are in as strong a financial position as they once were.

This is based on the fact that they were unable to compete for League of Ireland players at the beginning of last season and that they will lose a significant injection of money for next season for failing to qualify for Europe.

If the club is in a financially difficult situation they should come out and tell supporters. They would only be too glad to get behind the club and help out with fundraising. But the silence is deafening from the owners. The longer that goes on, the more nervous supporters will become.

The club badly needs new investors. That's becoming clearer by the week. I find it difficult to comprehend that the club has not started to enter into negotiations with the players they want to keep for next season.

But if that is the case it's a clear indicator that more finance needs to be injected into the club. If that does not happen and Dundalk fail to get the right players next season, then I can see them in relegation trouble.  Money is needed for a new pitch and to improve the facilities at the ground even if on a most basic level.

Supporter numbers attending Oriel have been falling in the past months.

The club needs to work hard not to let that happen. O'Donnell is not the reason for the decline in the club's fortunes. He needs to be given all the support he can get.

If the club loses Nathan Shepherd the supporters will be very unhappy. Dundalk have declined as a force in Irish soccer over the past few years. The whole club needs a radical overhaul.

If the owners can not see this the club is in serious trouble, then I do not know what to say. Personally I feel the club is in trouble. I fear it could be heading backwards rather than forwards. The owners have to come out of the bunkers and start talking or communicating with the supporters soon. I await to see what happens.

Ireland

I was at the Women's Nations League game between the Republic of Ireland and the North at the Aviva on Saturday.

It was the first time for the international team to play there 35,900 supporters were in attendance. It was an outstanding success.
Katie McCabe was a real leader. She led her forces to victory. I think the Republic will do well in this competition.

The game sent out a message if not already heard that women's soccer in Ireland will go from strength to strength. It is now a serious force in Irish sport. The women were coming off the back of the World Cup in Australia.

The FAI must tap into this powerful new asset. It's a pity they have yet to listen to the government on ensuring that the FAI must have a representation of women on its board of at least 40 per cent.

At the weekend, the government warned that all funding would be withdrawn from them if they do not act immediately. It is very poor on the FAI's part that they have not acted.

Funding for capital projects will be pulled completely unless this situation is resolved. The FAI will also lose funding that's badly needed to run the organisation on a day-to-day basis.

Dave Rogers surprisingly stood down as manager of Finn Harps on Saturday evening.

In a statement, Harps say that Dave, who was a former Dundalk player, has decided to stand down for both family and personal reasons. Dave's wife is also from Dundalk. He had a four year contract with the club.

Dundalk played Cork City last night in Oriel. Let's hope they got the three points.

Even if they did it will not paper over the problems the club has both on and off the pitch.

Stephen O'Donnell can not bring success to Oriel on his own.

With the chances of playing in Europe next season now gone the club is at a crossroads. Will the club be led to new and fresher pastures by the owners or will the situation at the club continue to deteriorate on and off the pitch.

Have a good week. Look after yourselves.