The Commentary Box: Dundalk could not put their chances away

It was the first time the sides met since the game in Oriel, when Drogheda United supporters badly damaged part of the new Oriel Park surface by throwing flares on the pitch.

READ NEXT: Dundalk’s growing injury concerns overshadow crucial Derry encounter

Sean O'Connor of the Irish Independent summed up Friday's game up best on social media when he said that 'Thankfully, this Louth Derby will be remembered for footballing reasons'.

He said the draw is unlikely to earn a Liveline slot on RTE Radio One or earn an over the top reaction from some in Leinster House. Sean said that perhaps that was the biggest win of all.

Football was the big winner. There were no serious incidents reported between opposing fans. There were real fears there could be trouble.

That there was not is to the credit of both sets of fans, and also to both clubs and to the Gardai. Sport was the winner in Drogheda last Friday night.

The atmosphere was electric. It was a typical derby game. But it was played in one that was non threatening to anybody.

There was some good football served up by both sides. But it had nothing of the passion and excitement of the Dundalk, Shamrock Rovers game the week before in Oriel.

Dundalk were also hit with news that two of their players had suffered serious injuries in the game that will possibly keep them out for some time in the coming weeks.

Daryl Horgan sustained a serious shoulder injury. Horgan was a star in the first half and ran the show for Dundalk. At half time, he was in excruciating pain with his shoulder.

The injury appears to be serious. Daryl, being forced to drop out, saw Dundalk's tempo fall off considerably in that second half.

It allowed Drogheda back into the game and get an equaliser and also come very close to a winner. Dundalk had so many chances in the first half. They just could not put them away.

Ciaran Kilduff also lost yet another centre half through injury. It was revealed after the game that Harvey Warren had picked up a bad hamstring injury.

It would take the early days of next week to ascertain the damage. But the injury is bad.

So, with Vinnie Leonard not being able to play since the second game of the season through illness and that he is Norwich-bound.

Mayowa is also out for a prolonged spell, Rob Cornwall was badly injured earlier in the season, and now Harvey Warren being missing, there appears to be a curse on the centre half position.

Rob Cornwall is fit again and played Friday. JR Wilson played in that position last week.

He was suspended for the Drogheda game. He may get used to being centre half for the foreseeable future.

Harvey Warren picked up his injury at the end of the game. Referee Rob Hennessey delayed Dundalk from getting to their badly injured player. This should not have happened.

Dundalk were by far the better team in the first half. But I knew Drogheda would come back at Dundalk in the second half, and that they did.

Their manager, Kevin Doherty, was sent off in Waterford 8 days ago. He had to sit in the stands on Friday. Drogheda had come into the game on the back of two defeats.

Eight days ago, they were robbed when their keeper was adjudged to have given away a penalty late in the game against Waterford.

It was a dreadful decision and saw Drogheda fall to a 2-1 defeat at the RSC in Waterford.

Drogheda came into the Dundalk game knowing they needed the win to get their season back on track.

Dundalk needed a win to continue on from last week's win over Shamrock Rovers.

Dundalk played with three at the back, along with two wing backs. They had five in midfield with just one striker. Enda Minogue lined out in goals.

I am giving Enda six out of ten for his performance. When Drogheda found their feet in the second half, they knew their way to goal.

The Dundalk defence was very poor at dealing with the high ball. It was again last Friday night.

The defence must cumulatively take responsibility for the Leo Burney goal on 59 minutes. But I watched Enda, and he never came off his line to at least try to deal with the danger.

He should have. Burney nearly scored in similar circumstances later in the game. Again, the Dundalk defence as a unit, including the keeper were found badly wanting.

Having said that, Enda Minogue did take off some good saves. Enda must learn to come off his line. He must dominate his penalty area. He and his defenders are not doing that.

Harvey Warren gets 7 marks for his work in defence. He had a good game. He will be a huge loss. Bobby Burns fitted in very well in the centre of the defence. I gave him 7 as well.

Rob Cornwall was also part of the back 3. He gets seven out of 10. Tyreke Wilson was one of two wing backs.

I think Tyreke is a highly talented player. He gets 9 out of 10. He caused Drogheda huge problems going forward.

He nearly scored for the second week in a row, from the exact same position that sent Rovers packing out of Oriel last Friday week.

Declan McDaid gets 6 out of 10. I thought Declen did very well down the other flank. He linked up well with those around him.

He would have been satisfied with his performance. He was replaced by Danny Mullen on 71 minutes. Danny gets 6. He did ok.

But it was always going to be difficult to have an impact on the game when he came on so late. Aodh Dervin was excellent in the centre of midfield.

He adds so much steel to the Dundalk midfield. He gets 8. Shane Tracey gets a 7. I thought Shane continues to build on his ability and creativity.

He was replaced by Keith Buckley on 82 minutes. Keith gets 6. Eoin Kenny was outstanding and gets 8.

He never stopped running, setting up players and trying to create openings for the entire 90 minutes.

He was also very unlucky not to score with at least two good attempts. Daryl Horgan was superb in the first half.

Daryl is regarded as the veteran, but he just continues to get better and better. He set up Gbemi Arubi for his goal. He drove the Dundalk team on with great leadership.

He is a leader and a motivator on and off the pitch. To hear that he sustained a bad shoulder injury and never came out for the second half was a stunning blow for Dundalk.

I give him 8 marks. The grip he had on the Dundalk team could be seen by the fact that they were just a shadow of the team that played in the first half.

It was a game of two halves. Drogheda were by far the better side in the second half.

Dundalk, with Horgan in the first half, were superb. They should have been at least two up going in at the break.

Gbemi Arubi gets 8. He was Dundalk's lone striker for much of the game. He created a lot in the first half. He got the goal that put Dundalk in front in the first half.

Gbemi is developing into a strong player. At 21, he still has much to learn. His link-up play with Daryl Horgan, Eoin Kenny and Aodh Dervin has been magical.

He reminds me of the way the late Georgie best used to play. Gbemi still has much to learn. He has great potential.

I would grade Dundalk's overall performance as a five out of ten. They were so much on top in the first half that Drogheda could not muster a single shot on target. Dundalk had 10.

But Dundalk only got one goal. Drogheda got a single goal in the second half. And they dominated that second half as Dundalk just simply fell apart.

I do not know why this happened. But there is no way it could be because Daryl Horgan did not play in the second half.

Ciaran Kilduff has a serious injury crisis. He needs two centre halves, two midfielders and a striker in the window. I have never seen so long an injury list at Oriel as exists at present.

What's causing it, I have no idea. Some people blame the new pitch. They are the conspiracy theorists.

I am a conspiracy theorist on a lot of things outside of sport. But, most certainly, I am not when it comes to Dundalk FC.

The Louth Derby was played in front of a crowd of 3,000 people. The away allocation of 600 tickets was sold out in ten minutes.

There is more and more interest in this fixture. Eoin Kenny tried to get Declan McDaid through early on. His attempt was blocked.

Shane Tracey showed great skill throughout the game. But he was booked as early as 11 minutes.

This meant he had to be very careful not to get another card for the rest of the game. Dundalk were in front on 18 minutes.

Aodh Dervin's pass was intended for Daryl Horgan. This was after he was pushed to the ground by Leo Burney.

Rob Hennessey allowed play to continue. Gbemi skillfully got past Andrew Quinn and sent a shot to the corner of the net.

Dundalk should have gone further in front after that. They were denied three perfect chances in succession with Drogheda on the rack.

Horgan had a great effort saved by the boot of the Drogheda keeper, Fynn Talley.

Tyreke Wilson found himself in the same position from where he scored the winning goal against Shamrock Rovers.

Tyreke's effort was deflected up off Edwin Agbaje's foot and onto the crossbar. Eoin Kenny then had a good effort blocked by the Drogheda keeper.

Drogheda were a totally different side in the second half. Brandon Kavanagh's corner on 57 minutes was not cleared by a lacklustre Dundalk defence.

Burney, totally unmarked, headed home. It was an awful goal to give away. Cruise had a great 30 yard effort that was not far away before the Drogheda leveller arrived.

That leveller was the 8th goal Dundalk have concluded from headers this season. What does that tell you about the Dundalk defence.

There are games in which they simply can't cope with the high ball. Dundalk just totally lost their shape.

Drogheda went with three at the back and two wing backs in the second half, as Dundalk had been using in the first half. Crusie went on a great run down the right. Oluwa missed an open goal.

Dundalk went to a shape of 4-3-3. It had no effect whatsoever. Ciaran Cruise of Drogheda United won the SSE Airtricity Man of the Match award. I was not

surprised. However, I do think that Tyeke Wilson was so good in both halves that he should have got the SSE award.

Dundalk are now five points off the third-placed European spot. If they want to get into Europe next season, they must keep winning.

Dundalk now have also the third-worst defensive record in the league, having conceded 27 goals in 18 matches. If a team wants to be successful, it needs to have a strong defence.

It also needs a good attack. Dundalk are banging the goals in and have the second-best scoring record in the league. But successful teams must have strong defences.

The amount of goals Dundalk have conceded is outside their control, given that most of the injuries have been in defence. The defence has been decimated.

And given that Harvey Warren looks like being out with a long spell at centre half, it's a massive blow.

Add all the injuries to the fact that Dundalk have only had Vinnie Leonard for just less than two full games.

He was sent off in the Shamrock Rovers game way back at the start of the season.

It was a dreadful decision by the referee. Then Vinnie was hit by a virus in his leg, which has left him out of the team since then.

Vinnie has been seriously ill with that illness. Thankfully, he is well on the mend. He has, of course, signed for English Championship side Norwich City.

He links up with them in and around three weeks' time. Mayowa is a massive loss to Dundalk. He is a young man who has so much potential.

But he is also out for the long term, as he has a serious hamstring injury. I could continue listing the injured players.

One of them, Ronan Teahan, has another medium to long-term injury. He is an excellent player.

Ciaran Kilduff still has a very good talented squad on his hands. Reserve keeper Sammy Safaei has returned from his loan spell with Harland and Wolf Steelers.

They play out of Belfast and are in the Championship section of the Irish League.

The loan spell will have done Sammy much good and increase Ciaran Kilduff's options at goalkeeping level.

Ciaran Kilduff said after the Drogheda game that the result probably feels like two points dropped. "It is not fair probably to feel like that.

I think probably the way we approached the second half, our form in the second half is not enough to say we deserved to win the game.

We had the opportunities to go two nil up in the first half. Maybe we had more than that. But we just did not take the chances that came our way in that first half.

We are very disappointed to concede off a set piece. I am very disappointed with the second half overall.

"We wanted to go for the second goal, even when we lost Daryl at half time. But we struggled to achieve our quality level at times in the second half.

The Drogheda game was always going to be difficult. It was away to our rivals.

Picking up three points against Shamrock Rovers the week before was great, but dropping two here tonight is a huge disappointment.

That's how it feels just straight after this game. When I zoom out of tonight, it has been a good first half to the season. But I still can not get away from the disappointment tonight.

"Daryl's injury is not looking great. He could not move his shoulder at half-time. We just made the call that it was not going to be possible for him to continue.

And we have lost Harvey Warren. He did his hamstring right at the end of the game. So it's been a bad night on the injury front. But look. We will take our point and move on."

I think the Dundalk boss was frank and honest about Dundalk's performance in the second half. They just completely lost their way in that second period.

Excuses can not be made that it was due to the Daryl Horgan injury.

Daryl does have a big influence on the team in a positive sense. But there are plenty of others who also have very positive influences.

I think we would all have taken Dundalk being where they are at the halfway point, had it been offered to us at the start of the season.

But now that Dundalk have left themselves in a good position, they must go forward from that.

The main aim at the start of the season was and still must be that they do not return straight back down after one year.

It may look unlikely that they could get caught for the automatic relegation place. They are sixteen points clear of bottom side Waterford.

But they are only seven points clear of second from bottom Sligo Rovers. The team from the north-west are in great form.

They could and will catch some of the teams above them. They are just one point behind Drogheda and Galway United, for example.

Sligo pulled off the shock of the season so far when they beat champions Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght last Friday. They were 11/1 to win the game.

A goal in the eighth minute of injury time won it for them. It proves Ciaran Kilduff's belief that every side is equally capable of beating each other in this League.

There is nothing between the sides in many ways. Former Dundalk player Ryan O'Kane created the Sligo goal.

Dundalk put their Leinster Senior Cup title on the line tonight when they play Stephen Kenny's St Pat's team. It's a repeat of last year's final, which Dundalk won.

That game was in Inchicore and was Dundalk's final game of the season.

With this game coming in the middle of the league campaign, it's highly likely that many of the under 21 team will feature.

Get along to the game. It's always great to see Pats in Oriel. It's equally good to have Stephen Kenny back at Oriel Park.

Dundalk play Derry City in the league at Oriel on Friday night. This is a massive game for both teams. Derry have drawn nine of their league games this season.

They have won five games and lost the other four. It's been a hugely disappointing season for Derry so far, given the amount of money that has been invested in the team.

Manager Tiarnan Lynch is under huge pressure to deliver. He is not doing that. City can still make the European qualifying places.

But they will have to start winning their games. They have drawn the two games they have played against Dundalk so far this season.

This will be a difficult game for Dundalk to win, given the long list of injuries they have. But on their night, Dundalk can beat anyone. I think they can get the win in Oriel on Friday.

Have a great week. Please take care of yourselves and each other. And of course, remember to be careful out there.