The Democrat Looks back on the Career of departing Dundalk FC club captain Chris Shields

Few players are likely to ever match the legacy forged by Chris Shields at Dundalk FC.

For the best part of 10 years, Dundalk’s number five has been a stalwart during what has been unquestionably the most successful era of the club’s long and illustrious history.

And, when the final whistle blows against Derry City at Oriel Park on Friday night, it will mark the end of what has been a stellar nine-and-a-half seasons for Shields at Dundalk.

The 30-year-old Clondalkin native – who resides in Bangor – will link up with Irish League champions Linfield, having signed a three-year contract with the Belfast side.

After cutting his teeth at Bray Wanderers, he was brought to Dundalk by the late Sean McCaffrey in 2012 and was handed the captaincy in his first season at the age of just 21.

However, like the club itself, Shields endured a tremendously difficult campaign, with the cash-strapped Lilywhites avoiding certain extinction off the field and relegation on it by virtue of beating Waterford United over two legs in the promotion/relegation play-off.

Back then, few would have envisaged his emergence as the most complete League of Ireland midfielder for a generation, not least because he spent most of that first season playing in defence alongside Liam Burns, who will be in the dugout for Shields’ farewell.

Shields was the subject of much criticism throughout his first 12 months at Oriel, but the resilience he showed was in sync with club’s subsequent rise to the top of Irish football.

Still, things could have turned out very differently, with a move to English League One side Carlisle United falling through at the ‘last minute’ before the 2013 season started.

Dundalk’s new manager, Stephen Kenny, wasn’t complaining, however, and he was only too delighted to retain Shields – along with a select few – for that forthcoming campaign, as The Lilywhites surprised many by finishing runners-up in the SSE Airtricity League.

Shields thereafter became arguably the most indispensable part of a Dundalk dynasty which – among other honours – yielded five SSE Airtricity League titles, three FAI Cups, three EA Sports Cups and two memorable UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns.

Plenty of star players came and went during that period, but one thing always remained the same, with Shields an ever-present at the club for whom he made 349 appearances.

Shields had built up a reputation for being a combative midfield enforcer that put his head where most wouldn’t even dare put their feet, but in recent seasons, he’s developed an immaculate passing range, not to mention chipping in with some crucial goals as well.

And, when it came to picking a man of the match any given week, Shields was usually the name you would revert to if in any doubt whatsoever, such was his levels of consistency. 

Legend is a term that’s perhaps used too loosely in modern times, but Dundalk have had some of the best – Joey Donnelly, Jimmy Hasty, Tommy McConville, to name but a few.

In years to come, Shields will rightfully be listed alongside such greats, and if anyone from his golden era at the club does deserve a statue, it would most definitely be him.

A player, who for almost an entire decade, epitomised everything good about Dundalk.

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