Hope springs eternal for Dundalk supporters

It seems Dundalk are going from one crisis to the other. News emerged on Sunday afternoon that Brian Gartland had departed the club. He has been with the club for 11 years and has won every trophy there has to be one.

He captained Dundalk to the last of Stephen Kenny doubles in November 2018. Brian has been Director of Operations at the club for the past two seasons.

His role had a very broad job description. After Stephen O'Donnell was sacked he was appointed caretaker manager by owner Brian Ainscough.

It was thought at the time that Brian and Liam Burns would be at the helm at Oriel for some time as the managers job for applications had a closing date of April 24th.

But sometime before that owner Brian Ainscough announced he was bringing Noel King in as manager. The decision caused much shock at the time as many could not believe that the owner did not wait until the April 24th deadline and also as Noel has not been a League of Ireland mens' manager since 2003.

When Noel King arrived he was happy to leave Gartland and Burns in charge. That was until he got to get to know his new team. Gartland and Burns would always be out of the dugout as King observed from within for most of the three games he was there.

Last Friday week I asked Brian how long this arrangement could continue. He said to ask the manager and did not know. But he did say there would have to be discussions at some stage about what was happening.

Last Friday night against Waterford, Brian Gartland and Liam Burns were not nearly as much out of the dugout as they had been. Noel King was on the touchline a lot more.

But for long spells there was no sign of anybody. The reason why Gartland has departed is not clear. But it comes in the wake of other major departures since Brian Ainscough took over at Oriel. Others to depart were Stephen O'Donnell, Patrick Cregg, and Chief Operating Officer, Martin Connolly.

The departure of Brian Gartland has come as a massive shock and will not go down well with supporters. It also came just 24 hours after supporters group, The 1903 released a letter to the public and directed to Brian Ainscough asking him to recognise what they called his mistake in appointing Noel king as manager, as he was out of the game over 21 years.

Dundalk's task of getting out of the automatic relegation zone worsened considerably last Friday night when they were trounced by Waterford by four goals to one at the RSC.

The manner in which Dundalk conceded the goals was very worrying. But even worse was the way in which the side lacked any real ideas, once the Waterford goals started to go in.

It was clear that Noel King was in charge of the Dundalk team on Friday. Brian Gartland and Liam Burns' roles as having a big influence in charge of the team looked to be greatly reduced.

Yes, Gartland and Burns could be seen emerging from the dugout at times. But Noel King was also clearly visible as well and from that alone one could deduce that he is tightening his grip on running the team. And that's how it should be. Now of course it is fully tightened following Brian's departure.

My worst fears of Noel King being given the manager's job were confirmed after his side was ripped apart by a rampant Waterford who had the worst home record in the league.

Their away record is top class and the three game week finished with them earning the maximum nine points from these games. Dundalk earned just a single point from the three games by comparison.

Last Monday Noel King made many of the decisions in the Louth derby. He made a mistake by keeping John Mountney on too long in that game. He had just come through 90 minutes three days earlier in the Shelbourne game.

It was too much for John. Thus King had no option but to move him to the bench last Friday. When he did come on he made a massive blunder that led to one of Waterford's goals.

Noel has not managed a League of Ireland team since 2003 when he was boss at Finn Harps. The game has moved on so much in the 21 years since.

It's too long of a gap to have thrown him in at the deep end for the owner to have appointed Noel as Dundalk manager. It's not working and it's not going to work.

The new owner by doing what he did has almost certainly condemned Dundalk to the First Division. The owner is entitled to hire who he thinks is best for the job of manager.

But when he choses a man who has been out of League of Ireland football for so long, then supporters and the media are entitled to ask questions.

And whatever the circumstances are to Gartland's departure at this stage I do not know. Dundalk as a club can ill afford to lose a giant of the club like him.

I have known Noel for a long time going back to the old days when he was in charge of Derry City. He is an absolute gentleman. He is a decent, honest and hard working man. But again I say time has moved on in football.

The managers of today are of a completely different generation than Noel's. The techniques, the style of football has also changed from 2003. Thus as it's two decades since he managed a League of Ireland side it's just too much to expect him to get Dundalk out of the mess Dundalk are in.

I do not in any way blame Noel for the crisis facing Dundalk. The shambles that Dundalk are in goes back to successive owners from the past. Current owner Brian Ainscough is a good guy and is well intentioned.

But now he has contributed to the mess or shambles by appointing Noel. The Dundalk team I saw on Friday in the second half were so bad that in a season or two they could be relegated to the newly planned Division 3.

After the game Noel spoke to the media. 3 of the goals we conceded were as a result of bad mistakes. "We are going to have to work hard to remedy this. We are now in a relegation battle."

These words shocked me. It was almost as if Noel realised just now that Dundalk are heading for the drop, because that is just exactly where they are heading, barring a miracle.

King's, "We are now in a relegation battle, reminded me of historical leaders in the past declaring "Ladies and gentlemen we are at war".

The declaration that the club is in a relegation battle leads me to think that maybe Noel thought they were in a phoney war with relegation up to now. Well after Friday he now knows.

King also accepted that Dundalk may be favourites to go down. But he said there were still 21 games left. This is a cliche often used by managers whose teams are heading for the lower divisions and who are simply conditioning supporters to that fact.

King says his team is not surrendering. He says they will get their heads together and plan ahead to deal with the crisis. But as one reporter at the game said to me that the squad is simply not good enough.

There are too many weaknesses in the squad. They have only picked up two points away from home this season. Their last win away from home was against UCD in November. I can not see them getting that away win. The reason is that I just do not believe Noel is the man to lead Dundalk into battle to get them out of the relegation zone.

When asked if he thought he had a side that had enough quality to get Dundalk out of trouble, he said he would see about that. He said Dundalk's performances against Bohemians, Drogheda and Shelbourne were very good.

I can not agree with the manager on the Drogheda performance. It was a game Dundalk threw away and literally handed to their neighbours.

"We will do our very best not to be relegated. That's what the manager said. And he said nobody wants to be tainted by being relegated with Dundalk". He says he knows not one of the players wants to be relegated. "We will look at it. We will examine it and we will fight the looming battles ahead".

I said to the manager that it was always going to be hard for Stephen O'Donnell and Brian Gartland to get a team together considering they only had a month as Brian Ainscough was only able to come in late to take over which was not his fault.

Noel says it's always difficult getting a team of players together especially in a short time frame. And he has this warning. "If you surrender, then you are certainly going down. No surrender," said the Dundalk manager.

Will keep going. "My message is keep fighting, keep working, find the problems and eradicate them. Robbie Benson was injured in the Waterford game.

"He is also suspended for the Shamrock Rovers game next Friday. John Mountney is injured as is Scott High. But we can't use this as an excuse. We had a good team out there this evening.

"They led following a bad mistake by Scott Munro. But we came back and equalised through Robbie Benson. We went on to dominate the first half. But it was the mistake for the second goal just before half time.

"We gave away a third goal with another mistake. Then the heads went down. But the injuries are not the reason we were beaten. We acquitted ourselves well in the main".

Noel said he would be investigating the defeat by watching videos, discussing it with the team and with his backroom staff. They would leave no stone unturned".

I just feel that this Dundalk team is not good enough to stay up no matter how much examination of videos and talking to backroom staff is carried out. They are the weakest Dundalk team I have seen since the club were relegated in 1998 for the first time in their history.

Dundalk had 4 changes in the side for Waterford. George Shelvey was suspended. John Mountney, and Paul Doyle were on the bench while Scott High was injured. Ross Munro returned to the goals, Koen Oostenbrink, Zak Bradshaw and Cameron Elliott were all in.

King went for a 4-4-2 system. He had Jamie Gullan, and Cameron Elliott up front. Gullan tried very hard. Elliott was once again poor. Dundalk were terrible in defence. They gifted Waterford four goals.

Asamoah starred for Waterford getting three goals. Waterford led on two minutes. Ross Munro made a rushed clearance of the ball straight to Asamoah. He skipped past two defenders before placing the ball in the left hand corner of the net.

Dundalk leveled on 22 minutes after Waterford's 'keeper Sam Sargeant made a howler of a mistake, playing a clearance to Jamie Gullan.

He passed the ball to Robbie Benson who finished the ball to the net from close range, Dundalk should have had a penalty on 36 minutes when Jamie Gullan was clearly taken down in the box. The referee booked Gullan and gave Waterford a free. It was a disgraceful decision.

Waterford were back in front just before the break. Darragh Power fed Connor Parsons down the flank, his cross into the box found Asamoah. He slammed the ball home with ease. Robbie Benson was injured on 52 minutes. He misses the Shamrock Rovers game next Friday through suspension after being booked. It's not known how serious his injury was.

Waterford got their third goal when Dean McMenamy's corner was cleared to Parsons. His shot deflected off Zak Johnson to Grant Horton who set up Christie Pattison. He blasted high to the roof of the net.

Asamoah struck for his third and Waterford's fourth goal when John Mountney made a dreadful mistake when he failed to deal with a ball in the box. Asamoah chipped the ball over Ross Munro's head and into the net. That was it.

Another trouncing. And worse it was Ross Munro's second time to concede four goals this season. Last time it was against Derry City. That was the last time also Stephen O'Donnell managed Dundalk.

Dundalk just seem to move from one crisis to the other. In midweek last week George Shelvey was given a 10 man match ban over a discriminatory comment towards a match official in the Louth derby yesterday week.

An FAI disciplinary committee found the 23 year old to be in "breach of regulations" relating to "abuse towards a match official".

A statement said "The FAI and League of Ireland maintains a strict zero tolerance approach towards any act of racism/discrimination and are committed to ensuring that League of Ireland matches remain a safe and welcoming environment for everyone".

Dundalk in a statement said that their player did not initially "comprehend the discriminatory aspect of what he had said and that they would not be appealing the ban.

"While George realised very quickly that he had used inappropriate language, he did not, at first, comprehend the discriminatory aspect of his words", said the statement.

"However having discussed the matter with club officials he now fully accepts that his words were not only offensive, but also discriminatory. Going forward Dundalk FC will work with George to develop his understanding of these issues".

Shelvey, who signed from Nottingham Forest in February, can not feature until Dundalk's away fixture with Bohemians on 26th July.

In my opinion the FAI had no option but to invoke such a severe ban. They have worked hard over the years with schools on their anti-racism programmes such as Show Racism the Red Card in schools all over the country.

They have worked hard in many schools in the Dundalk area on this particular programme. Former Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Packie Bonner has been a central part of the programme in years gone by and visited a number of schools in Dundalk as part of the programme.

Dundalk FC have also done so much work in local schools as well on the Show Racism the Red Card in the local schools and the community.

I think Dundalk to their credit have handled the Shelvey incident very well. They know what the Dundalk goalkeeper said was indefensible and they are not appealing it.

But the question remains for the club what happens after the terms of the suspension are up. Some say George should be released from his contract. It's not as easy as that as Dundalk would have to pay the keeper considerable compensation in letting him go and releasing him from his contract.

Others say he should be allowed to return and that he will have learned his lesson. Others say he must never be allowed to play for Dundalk again.

I think Dundalk will show shrewd judgement on the matter and make the right decision when they have to. George is a young man and is only 22. I believe that yes he made a mistake.

And it was one that should never have been made. But I feel that the 10 match suspension and the publicity that has gone with it, is punishment enough.

He should be allowed to continue his career with Dundalk. Whether that happens only time will tell. His remarks were indefensible.

But I just get the feeling and it's only a feeling that we will see George back in a Dundalk jersey at the end of July. We shall see.

Stephen Kenny is on the verge of making an instant return to the League of Ireland. But sadly it's not to Dundalk. It is to St. Pats in Dublin.

The talk among a number of reporters in Waterford when this news had come true was why had he not gone back to Dundalk when Stephen O'Donnell was sacked.

It was believed at the time that Kenny had been made a very considerable offer by Dundalk to return. Kenny is believed to have been lukewarm to both Dundalk and Bohemians offers to return.

Whether Stephen Kenny ever even got a chance to formally respond to the advertisement looking for the Dundalk job will never be known.

This is because of the rapid decision by the owner to appoint Noel King. But the once most successful club and titans of Irish soccer are in as big a crisis as I have ever seen. It has all gone wrong at Oriel, with the departure of Brian Gartland being the final straw.

In other news Shelbourne are receiving an investment of one million euro from a Dublin business man. He also gets a share of the club as well. Their rise from the ashes has been unreal.

Dundalk meet Shamrock Rovers in the league at Oriel next Friday. Rovers have been without many of their key players through injury and are not playing like champions.

But they are bang in the title race and will more than likely make it five in a row. As for Dundalk. They will go into the game as underdogs. For the club's supporters hope springs eternal. I see only a Rovers win especially after the mauling Dundalk got from Waterford on Friday.