COMMENT | Perth still deserves huge credit in a season where Dundalk have had no real challenger

‘Shamrock Rovers are title winners in waiting after moving an incredible 13 points ahead of Dundalk’. That line, and little old Finn Harps, made this year’s SSE Airtricity League Premier Division mildly interesting, but there was an inevitability about Dundalk’s latest success.

Last Monday, considering it was a game against Rovers to seal the title, Oriel Park was relatively quiet. There is a fear that success is breeding complacency with some supporters, as can happen in football, and Dundalk are certainly missing a rival that can really challenge them. This was just too easy.

Cork City’s presence at the top of the table has been missed this season. To their credit, they always made a title race out of it and only their stunning return of 64 points from the first 66 on offer in 2017 stopped a potential six-in-a-row that we might well now have been toasting.

Rovers’ only threat came from that early-season 13-point lead that they built up, thanks particularly to two wins over struggling Harps on days in March when Dundalk were not playing. The Lilywhites’ slow start contributed to that deficit, too, with just four wins from their first nine – indeed, failing to beat Harps among the disappointments.

Injuries were a large contributing factor. Robbie Benson and Patrick McEleney suffered long-term setbacks on the opening day of the season at home to Sligo Rovers, two huge blows to Vinny Perth, who also saw Patrick Hoban miss an early penalty. Had that been converted, Dundalk may well have won comfortably on a night when they were impressive without firing. It ended 1-1.

The goalscorer that night, Seán Murray, introduced himself to supporters with a bang. There is no doubt he would be playing at a higher level if he had better luck with injuries. He has been a huge influence on Dundalk when available, but his constant struggle for fitness has been another headache for Perth.

Away to Shamrock Rovers in the fourth outing of the season, Chris Shields suffered an injury that would rule him out for five league games. Dundalk won the first three of those, but lost the next two – back-to-back defeats, the manner of which in Sligo was, at the time, deeply concerning. A 2-1 loss could well have been 4 or 5-1.

The mood was visibly down in the camp on that night at The Showgrounds. Perth said afterwards: “The team is struggling since the first game against Sligo when we had two broken bones, and we haven’t been able to fix it. We have had some good performances; we got a good run and clean sheets together, but we’re still short at the moment.

“I’ll look in the mirror and question what we’re doing. I’ll take responsibility for getting it wrong, and try to take responsibility for fixing it.”

That was April 12, the date of the opening line. Dundalk trailed by 13 points, albeit with two games in hand, but they needed a boost, an injection of life from somewhere. Three days later, on a Monday night of nerves at Oriel Park, it arrived against Bohemians – after the 56th-minute return of Shields, Hoban buried a 95th-minute, last gasp winning penalty.

A season-changer, many suggested in the moment. “I don’t know what the net effect of tonight will be. I could be left with egg on my face. We hope it’s going to be a turning point,” Perth said after that 1-0 win, where Bohs were considered extremely unlucky not to take the three points. What another loss would have resulted in is unknown.

Instead, that precious victory saw a “net effect” that was spectacular – 62 points from the subsequent 66 available, to be precise, and overall, a club record-breaking run of 23 games unbeaten that culminated in last week’s title triumph. Spectacular.

There were other important moments, too. A convincing home win over Rovers in late April, despite the 2-1 scoreline, put the darlings of the national media in their box.

A month later, having by now moved to top spot, back-to-back home wins over Bohs and St. Patrick’s Athletic were lucky – Hoban’s 96th-minute penalty this time beating the Gypsies 2-1, before the most fortuitous of goals in the final minute from Seán Hoare saw off his former side. At the time, it was a massive four-point gain in the space of just four days.

By the time Dundalk got to Tallaght Stadium – the first game after the mid-season break on June 28 – they were five points clear at the summit. The players had their impending European campaign on their minds, and many would have taken a draw to keep that lead intact. Seán Gannon had other ideas and nicked a winner to widen the gap to eight. Game over, it appeared.
Midfielder McEleney remarked after that valuable victory: “It’s a nice position to be in. We went to Shamrock Rovers to win; we go everywhere to win. Every game in this league is tough, but going into Europe, we have put ourselves in a nice position.

“It seems to be all gelling. I think at the start we couldn’t have got any more setbacks if we had asked for it. It is sort of turning for us now. To be honest, I think it brought us together more, even with the new players – I think it made us gel more, so it could have been a blessing.”

That eight-point cushion, it was thought, would give Dundalk some breathing space should they slip up at any stage in the middle of Europe. But just seven days after Tallaght, there was a slip – a 2-2 draw in Derry after a 95th-minute concession. Rovers, though, failed to take advantage as they were held scoreless at home by Sligo.

That, in effect, was that – Rovers’ final chink of light, Dundalk’s last dropped points. There were times when The Hoops reduced the deficit due to Dundalk’s European schedule, including to just four points on August 27. Perth’s men had two games in hand, though, and they bagged the maximum from those against Sligo and Cork on September 2 and 6.

Even when Dundalk played poorly, they got the job done. They managed to edge past Waterford 1-0 on September 20 thanks to a bizarre goal, on a night when Rovers again failed to score in Tallaght, a 0-0 with St. Pat’s.

A 12-point lead and the perfect stage for Dundalk to clinch the title last Monday. It was undoubtedly a special night – capped by the Goal of the Season from Michael Duffy – but there was something strange in the air. This league title was just too comfortable and everybody in the place felt it.

However, the style in which Dundalk won it – through a club record- breaking run – must be applauded loudly. The work of the management team, particularly Perth who believed in his squad and rotated his players masterfully, matches anything that Stephen Kenny did in a single season at Oriel Park.

When big figures vacate football clubs, it can be extremely difficult to replace them, as Shamrock Rovers found out after the 2011 departure of Michael O’Neill, who had delivered back-to-back league titles. They haven’t got near one since.

Dundalk and their supporters should be extremely thankful for having Perth, whose hard work behind the scenes over the past seven seasons has been rewarded with what must be the sweetest of successes for him personally.

But classy midfielder Jamie McGrath summed it up as he reflected on clinching the title last week.

“It just shows the job Vinny, John and Ruaidhrí have done,” Jamie said. “I think Vinny’s work has been underrated. He hasn’t got the plaudits he probably deserved this year. People were probably throwing stuff his way when it wasn’t going well, but now we’re flying, I don’t know if he’s getting the due credit he deserves.

“We all know the job he has done here. He has done an incredible job and credit to him because it’s a very tough job to follow and he’s grabbed it with both hands.

“Vinny is one of the founding members of this period of success. Hopefully, nights like tonight and hopefully we can finish the season with another trophy, then people will stand up and see what job he has really done. He motivates us every week in training, we’ve been in most Sundays, all the midweek matches – it’s hard to do that, but he has kept us going and it has been relentless.”

Relentless, indeed. Roll on November 3.