Inside Track: This time Dundalk benefit from a late score
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
It’s ironic that after paying the penalty for all the late scores they conceded at the mid-point of the competition that Dundalk should have saved their League of Ireland Premier League standing with the help of a 90th minute goal.
Time was nearly up in the away game with Sligo the weekend before last, when Ronan Teahan put the finishing touch to a move in which Declan McDaid was most the main player.
That made it 1-1, and though a draw with the team already doomed to relegation would in normal circumstances be nothing to write home about, the point gained was enough to ensure top-flight football again being played at Oriel next season.
That was the aim at the beginning of the season, remaining in the company of the country’s best teams. There’d been a win in the First Division the previous season, Dundalk finishing well clear of their nearest rivals.
That promotion-winning performance was a boost to Ciarán Kilduff in his first outing as a League of Ireland manager. Staying in the top division was the priority setting out this year, and now that that has been achieved, the boss and his team can be pleased.
However, it could have been better had a fine opening to the campaign been maintained. Dundalk were keeping company with the leading sides after a series of good results, but then came a slump, contributed to by injuries and the loss of key players, Arubi and Kenny, on their transfer to English clubs.
While Dundalk were iffy at the back, leaking goals, many of them coming late in games, the absence of these two frontmen had a telling affect.
Interestingly, the point was made recently, that since Harry Kane went to Bayern Munich, Spurs fortunes have taken a nosedive, the once leading London side figuring in the bottom half of the table instead of fighting for titles. Goals win matches.
Dundalk, beaten by Derry last weekend, close out the season at Oriel on Friday night, facing the imperious Shamrock Rovers.
The Tallaght Stadium side clinched their seventh league title in eight years last Friday night, and as per tradition, should have been presented with the trophy.
They still needed to win and other of the contenders to lose their games, and rather than tempt fate, manager Stephen Bradley asked that there be no contingency plan for a presentation.
So, what’s going to happen is, the trophy is to be handed over at Oriel on Friday night. That won’t be something new for the venue – it’s happened often in the past. But on those occasions, it was Dundalk who were on the receiving end.