How right Stephen Kenny was when he said the good days don’t last forever

Probably the people who are hurting most as Dundalk FC tether on the brink, its future uncertain, are those who’ve been going to Oriel Park for years.

Unlike today’s generation, who, until this year, basked in the sunshine of unprecedented success, the senior set would have seen dark days, along, of course, with many rewarding days.

But even when the slope was slippery, they were unstinting in their support. The tail-end of the 1990s and again in the early part of this century was precarious for the club; overcoming it was helped by many dipping into their pockets, and, above all, continuing to turn up for games.

No-one has been a more loyal Orielite than Packie McGuinness. If he has missed a game, at home, anywhere else in the country where League of Ireland football is played, and, indeed, on the continent, it was maybe because he was unwell.

Another loyalist, well known by Inside Track, is the letter-writing Jim McCourt. Jim’s been hors de combat for some time but keeps abreast with everything that’s happening on the field and off it through TV and the newspapers.

McCourt, McGuinness and, no doubt, many other Oriel long-servers must be looking on aghast at what’s now happening, the team languishing, ownership of the club having constantly changed, managers going and coming, and fisticuffs in the stand – not among rival supporters, but people in authority, past and present. Unedifying more than anything else.

It was to be expected that a missive would wing its way to IT from McCourt. It has happened quite often in the past, in the good days as well as the not-so-good days. What he says confirms much of the above.

He open with a question, one that many are asking: “How has it come to this, the second most successful club in the League of Ireland, relegated and a million in the red? I’ve seen bad days before, but never as bad as this.

“The manager is leaving. As he said, he wouldn’t have come next nor near Oriel had he been told the truth about the club’s finances. If John Temple (the new owner) can’t clear a large chunk of the debt, will the club get a licence for next season? And when you think of it, who would want to invest money with the ship lilting so badly.”

Jim further asks: “Could this be the end of a once-great club? Hopefully not.” But even if it’s not, he points out that the last time the team was relegated, it took seven years to get back up to the top division.

He finishes by recalling the words of Stephen Kenny at the time the team was winning all before him: “Enjoy these good days, they don’t last forever.” How right Kenny was. But surely he couldn’t have envisaged the tide turning so quickly, and when it did, causing such devastation.