Inside Track: Let’s hear it for the goalie
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
How better for Dundalk to put the brakes on a losing run than by beating Shamrock Rovers?
The victory at Oriel last Friday night was something special, watched by a big crowd at the Carrick Road venue and by many thousands looking in on telly.
A goalie will always get support/sympathy/praise from this quarter. In other words, I have a soft spot for them.
Standing between the posts can be a lonely spot, very lonely if you’re letting several past you.
I was that soldier, admittedly for only a short time and with limited success. Still, I was there when Louth........... (No need to go any further, you heard it several times before and saw the pictures.)
Tyreke Wilson’s only goal of the Friday evening’s match was straight from Roy of the Rovers, the ball from Daryl Horgan’s inch-perfect pass volleyed to the top of net with precision. Roy Race would love to have scored one like it.
I don’t know who Race’s goalkeeping colleague was, or is (Is the comic still being sold?).
Whoever he was/is, he’d get it hard to beat the handful of saves Enda Minogue brought off in the dying minutes.
One in particular had just a slight resemblance to Gordon Banks’ stop from Pele all these years ago, but had still magnificence written all over it.
It came as Rovers threw just about everything at the Dundalk defence, going in search of an equaliser.
The win keeps Dundalk in the top four, well away from the hazardous bottom half of the table. This weekend’s game with Drogheda has jeopardy of all kinds attached.
All decent people connected with both clubs must hope it bears no resemblance to the first meeting of the sides and all its attending thuggery.