FANZONE | Kenneth Sloane picks his favourite players and Dundalk FC XI of all-time

HOW LONG ARE YOU A FAN?
I remember 1983 was the first season that my Dad began bringing me along to Oriel as a kid on a Sunday afternoon. It turned out to be Jim McLaughlin’s last season in charge, so I was lucky to catch the final season of a legendary manager.

FIRST MEMORY OF ORIEL PARK
One of my earliest memories would be adopting Richie Blackmore as my first Oriel hero. He was a fantastic ’keeper and as I was playing in goal in the minor league and Richie had sold me my first pair of football boots in his sports shop in the old shopping centre I figured we were kindred spirits.
 
STAND OR SHED?
There probably isn’t a single spot I haven’t watched a game from in Oriel over the years but I feel every Dundalk fan should spend their youth in the shed and when the years catch up with you it’s time to pass the baton on to the next generation and gracefully retire to the stand. It’s the fan equivalent of moving from playing to coaching.

CUP OR LEAGUE?
Obviously I’d take either trophy and in a good year both. While the league gives you the bragging rights as the best team in the country, the FAI Cup will always produce its own potent mix of anticipation, excitement, exhilaration, joy, heartbreak and frequently pure nerve-jangling terror. So for many fans the Cup edges it.

FAVOURITE PRESENT PLAYER?
Seán Gannon, he deservedly has more medals than the Olympics.

ALL-TIME FAVOURITE?
Richie Towell, the most complete footballer I’ve ever seen in the League of Ireland.

BIGGEST RIVALRY?
Shamrock Rovers

OPPOSITION I’VE A SOFT SPOT FOR?
Bohemians.
 
GAME OF THE KENNY ERA?
There were so many special nights in the Kenny era. But for me the Champions League third round, 3-0 victory over BATE Borisov was the pinnacle. In truth BATE should have been home and dry after the first leg where they pummeled the Dundalk goal but only came away with a 1-0 lead. In the second leg in Tallaght Dundalk played the perfect game. To have sent a team ranked 206 places above us crashing out of the Champions League still seems like something of a miracle, and it set us all up for an incredible European adventure. There was a tremendous feeling of unity between the players, coaching staff and fans, and to find ourselves in the national spotlight after all the tough years in the First Division that preceded it was extra special.

GAME OF THE O’CONNOR ERA?
Possibly the most memorable game under Turlough was the 3-2 victory over Derry City on Easter Monday in 1988. Dundalk were vying with Brian Kerr’s St. Patrick’s Athletic in the run in for a title that was so competitive you couldn’t really afford to lose a single game. An uncharacteristically sluggish Dundalk were trailing 0-2 with 13 minutes to go with little sign of a chance of getting back into the game. Plenty of fans had already left Oriel when Gino Lawless headed in from a Terry Eviston corner to muted applause. The crowd stirred a little more when Barry Kehoe struck home an unlikely equaliser six minutes later, thinking a draw was probably more than we deserved. With only seven minutes to save the title challenge Dundalk finally began to play more like themselves and Dessie Gorman unleashed pandemonium when he latched onto a backpass and slipped the ball under Tim Dalton.

2019 IN A SENTENCE
Vindication.

ALL-TIME DUNDALK XI?
Gary Rogers; Seán Gannon, Martin Lawlor, Jim Gannon, Brian Gartland; Daryl Horgan, Richie Towell, Stephen O’Donnell, Chris Shields; David McMillan, Patrick Hoban.

WILL WE GET ANY MORE FOOTBALL THIS YEAR?
The current crisis puts everything in a new perspective. While you have to feel for players who have trained so hard and now find the season interrupted just when they’d be hoping to get into their stride and fans are obviously missing the games and the sense of community that goes with being a fan, we all have new real-life heroes to get behind like the workers in the health service who are literally putting their lives on the line to care for people, and the scientist and pharmaceutical technicians who are working to develop antiviral treatments and vaccines that are hopefully bringing us closer every day to a point when we can get back to enjoying football and all the other things that enrich our lives. I hope in that new normal when we once again get to cheer on our footballing heroes that we won’t forget the scientist, lab workers, doctors and nurses and all the other workers who were the heroes of the crisis, and to whom we owe so much. When we all do finally get back together in Oriel it will be an extra special occasion.