The Commentary Box: Dundalk have been lacklustre in so many games of late

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This has not happened since 2024, when Dundalk were relegated to the First Division. For Drogheda, it was a great win where they snatched a winner three minutes from time from the boot of Shane Farrell.

Played in front of a crowd of 2,600 people, it was a night of frustration for Ciaran Kilduff's men. Dundalk led, but once again they threw it away and the three points.

Dundalk have now thrown away 22 points over the season after leading in a game this season. The side were poor all over. Confidence seems to be ebbing away from a team that I honestly thought could even catch Shamrock Rovers only a few weeks ago.

Once again, it was Dundalk's defence that played a part in their downfall. But it was not only the defence. The lack of fight, imagination, self belief and the ability to beat teams has been badly affected. Dundalk can take leads.

But they can not keep them. Their slump in form cannot be laid at the feet of one player or group of players. Dundalk have been lacklustre in so many games of late. It puts huge pressure on manager Ciaran Kilduff as to how or if he can rectify the issue.

The side have been crippled with injuries, losing some key players who are out for the rest of the season. They have seen players who have returned from injury who are still not over them. Mayowa is one player.

He has a hamstring injury and is still suffering with it. Gbemi Arubi is another who clearly has not been right, since he picked up an injury while abroad with the Republic of Ireland under 21's. Gbemi is still scoring, and he did put Dundalk ahead in the first half.

The standard of refereeing continues to astonish me. The referee was poor for both sides. But while he did let Drogheda away with a lot. His decisions hardly ever went the way for Dundalk.

Rob Harvey was just terrible. It defies logic to me as to how such referees are allowed to make bad decisions and still be in charge of games the following week.

If a referee has two bad games in a row, they should not be allowed to referee games again for at least a month. I have seen a litany of poor refereeing in Oriel all season. Last Friday's was the worst.

The referee took no action against Drogheda, who continually literally pulled the jerseys off some of the Dundalk players.

Indeed, Gbemi Arubi had his shorts pulled so hard that they ripped badly. He was forced to get a change almost immediately, as they were in shreds, just hanging off him.

But Dundalk cannot lay the blame of the defeat on the shoulders of the referee. It was their lacklustre performance that gave Drogheda their first win in nine games. I can not see an end to the dip in form ending soon.

The manager needs to reorganise his team and sign new players in whatever time that has been left in the window. They need a new centre half, a midfielder a striker. And they also need a new goalkeeper. Dundalk have the fourth-worst record at conceding goals.

For the record, they have conceded thirty-five goals in twenty-five games. This is not good. It's a very porous defence and is relatively easy to score against, as Drogheda showed on Friday. The manager must make changes.

He must bring in Sean Spáight, who is a Republic of Ireland youth international. TJ Molloy is another player who has so much talent. He deserves a call up. Luke Mulligan has not been given a chance this season.

He is only 17 and starred in the First Division team until he was badly injured in Wexford. Luke is from Ballybay. He showed enough talent last season to show that he could do well for the manager. Dundalk also need a change of keeper.

Either Peter Cherrie is brought back, or young Samuel Saffei gets a chance. Samuel went out on loan to Irish League First Division team Harland and Wolff Steelers last season.

He did very well. The manager indicated to me on Friday that he does not intend to make any chance in the goalkeeping position. I was very surprised at that.

To the manager's credit, he has pointed out that no Dundalk supporter would have envisaged Dundalk being fourth in the table at this stage of the season. Well, I did.

But now that their form has taken such a dramatic nosedive, I think the Oriel Park side are heading into a stage of survival in the Premier Division. Dundalk are 14 points clear of second from bottom Waterford.

They have picked up 10 points in their last four games. Sligo are on 20 points and are bottom. They have strengthened considerably in the window. Their form will improve.

Dundalk can get back to winning ways. However, their next two games in the league are away to Shamrock Rovers and away to Pats. Should Dundalk not get out of this losing rut, then they will dramatically fall down the table.

Dundalk were the better team in the first half. which had plenty of drama mixed up with the worst refereeing I have ever seen. Rob Harvey gave Drogheda everything. He gave Dundalk nothing.

The lead goal came in the 20th minute when a Keith Buckley pass hit Daryl Horgan and Drogheda's Leo Burney in the box. It deflected to Gbemi Arubi, who made no mistake from close 12 yards, shooting past Luke Dennison.

This was Gbemi's 7th goal of the season. His earlier header fell just wide of the upright. Bobby Burns also had a long-range effort that was not far away.

There was also a well-worked move in the early stage of the game that saw Tyreke Wilson's cross deflected into the Drogheda side netting by their defender Jason Bucknor.

Drogheda only threatened Dundalk twice in the first half. Most of Drogheda's first-half display was by sloppy play in possession during the first 45 minutes.

All they had to show in the first 45 minutes Ryan Brennan's off-target header and Shane Farrell's long-range effort that was going nowhere.

Dundalk could have gone in at the break two up when Tyreke Wilson's effort was saved well by Luke Dennison. Ciaran Kilduff was very angry with the referee over the way he had taken charge of the game.

He walked up to him at the break while the referee was still on the pitch. He duly got a yellow card. Drogheda levelled on 73 minutes.

But it was a very controversial free. Mayowa was clearly fouled on the edge of the Drogheda box. Referee Rob Harvey amazingly gave Drogheda the free in.

The ball was slipped to Shane Farrell, who saw a huge gap in the Dundalk wall. He also saw that the Dundalk keeper Enda Minogue was badly positioned. He left a big empty gap for Farrell to pick his place for the goal.

That he did. He curled the ball into the top left-hand corner of the net. It was an awful goal to give away.

There you had Dundalk, who had worked their socks off all night to have the lead goal taken off them by some very poor goalkeeping from Enda Minogue and dreadful refereeing.

How often has it happened this season where Dundalk led but were hauled back? All their good work was for nothing. The Dundalk wall and keeper left a massive gap at the far post. Farrell just shot to the empty net.

Drogheda smelt blood now and went for the winner. Ryan Markey was brought on for his first derby. The clock ticked itself down, and it looked as if it were heading for a draw. Three minutes from time, Shane Farrell pumped in a corner from the right.

The Dundalk defence was in a state of utter confusion. The corner was not cleared properly. Shane Farrell ran in from the corner flag. The spinning loose ball came to him. It was fired home by the Drogheda ace.

The small number of Drogheda supporters at the game were thrilled. The Drogheda team were delighted. Dundalk were totally deflated. Dundalk looked as though they had been knocked out of the World Cup.

The result has huge implications. Unless Dundalk can rediscover their good form and soon, they will fall down the table quicker than they climbed it.

All of the Premier Division clubs have bought in the window. Dundalk have bought just one player. That's simply not good enough. They must. If they do not, they will be battling to stay in the Premier Division.

The manager must know must be ruthless in his team selections. He must pick the players whom he feels can get Dundalk back to winning ways.

There are things he can do even if he does not get any new players in on the window. He knows what he has to do. I have said it here often enough. He did it last season when he had to, and Dundalk got promotion. Let's wait and see what happens.

Enda Minogue took off one or two good saves in the game. He and his defenders must take responsibility for the first goal. He gets a rating of 4. Mayowa played well in defence and going forward. But still carrying an injury.

He was replaced by Harry Groome on 80 minutes. Mayowa gets 6. Rob Cornwall 5. Rob did not have the best of nights. But I wonder if he was carrying an injury. Bobby Burns played his heart out for Dundalk. He gets 6.

JR Wilson gets 5. It was not one of the best games I have seen him play. Trevor Clarke replaced him on 69 minutes. He gets 4. Keith Buckley gets 6. He was replaced by Shane Tracey on 63 minutes. Shane gets 6. Aodh Dervin played his heart out. He gets 7.

Tyreke Wilson had a good game on Friday. He was replaced by Declan McDaud. Tyreke gets 7. Declan McDaid gets 5. Daryl Horgan battled so hard. He gets 7. Gavin Teehan gets 7. Once more, he was excellent in the centre of the park.

He linked up well with midfield, defence and attack in his games. Gbemi Arubi gets 7. He took his goal very well, but Gbemi was too much of a lone figure up front and, as such, was ineffective for much of the game.

Ciaran Kilduff told me after the game that the first half was stop-start. one. “But we did go in one nil up at half time. But as the game went on, we did look very vulnerable. We made changes as the game went on.

We tried to get fresh legs onto head off what we felt was coming. They scored from a free kick and from a corner. We did have a great start here tonight, just as we had in Tolka. We were two nil up here against Waterford.

We ended up losing all three games. It's creeping in where we just seem to be unable to manage a lead. I felt we were uncomfortable for a very large part of that second half.

We have now dropped 22 points from games where we have been in front. It's not good. But that was a game tonight that was there to be won. The stakes were too high.'

''It was a very frustrating night with some decisions made by the referee. I got booked myself at half time when I went to talk to the referee.

A lot of the players raised points with me at half time. Gbemi had to come off during the game after his shorts were torn, and he had to replace them.

''I already have raised how unhappy I have been at the way some of our games have been officiated by officials. We have the highest red card incidents in the league.

Last week we had a player flagged offside from a throw in. I am frustrated with decisions going against us that should not be. But I am also frustrated at our own performances as well, among other things.

Set pieces are very important in this game. We are giving away a lot of these. Tonight their two goals came from set pieces.''

'Drogheda are very, very good at set pieces. Our goalkeeper does talk to his players and does organise walls for frees correctly. We worked on that yesterday, Thursday.

I will have to watch their goal back; they got it from the free. I will have to watch back where you say there was a large gap left where Drogheda scored''.

''I back all my players and I always will. I won't just single out one game if a mistake is made. Do you think we are having a good season? We are not out of Europe yet. But yes, maybe our chances are diminishing.

We are not out of relegation either. We are not out of anything. We have two-thirds of the season done and a third to go. We are not out of anything. We need a cup game like next week against St Mochtas.

We need the game too for players that need it as well. It gives us a chance to recalibrate things and to look ahead to the final third of the season.''

''Hopefully next week will be the start of a good cup run. We are fourth in the table. If you had asked anybody that in January, would you have taken it.''

Asked about players coming in, I suggested to the manager that he needed a new striker, a defender, midfielder and a new keeper. The manager said I seemed to be saying that Dundalk needed a new team.

I said to the manager that he certainly needed a new keeper, whether that means bringing Peter Cherrie back or the younger keeper, Samuel Saffei. The manager shook his head at me while I asked the question.

He said that well that means we need a lot of new players. I said you do and that it was because of all the injuries. The manager said there were a lot of players that would be returning from injury.

I asked the manager if he would be bringing in any new players this week. I told him I knew the club got a lot more than 40,000 euro for Eoin Kenny. The manager's answer was ''Yes, but sure I can't use it now tonight for the three points we have lost''. I said to the manager that I hope Dundalk splashed the cash this week on some new players.

Ciaran Kilduff can solve some of his side's problems from within the club itself, with existing players in his squad being utilised. His team are conceding far too many goals.

They are throwing away important leads as a result, which has resulted in three straight defeats in a row. Ciaran is a good manager. Last season he had much the same problem during part of the year.

He knew what he had to do. He signed well in the window and also made other vital key changes, which saw Dundalk motor easily to promotion. Dundalk's bad defending is resulting in them losing leads too easily and, as a result, losing the games.

They have dropped nine vital points in games they should have won. It's time for the club to back Kilduff with the finance needed to strengthen the squad. The team's confidence has been badly affected at the ease in which it has lost the last three games.

Yes, Dundalk are a newly promoted team. Yes, they are in fourth position. I do not think they will be in that place for much longer, unless they can rediscover their form. Dundalk are a team with players who have a lot of senior football behind them.

They also have some very good young players. The squad has lost Vinny Leonard and Eoin Kenny this season. Sean Keogh went last season. Thus, three young players who have had key roles to play are gone.

Sean Keogh and Vinny Leonard did not play for Dundalk this season. Sean Keogh was gone from the club since last season, while Vinny Leonard missed the season apart from playing in the first two games.

Vinny picked up a serious illness and injury as well. Thankfully, he is fine now. He left for Norwich three weeks ago. Eoin Kenny signed for Portsmouth last week.

Ciaran Kilduff has revitalised Dundalk when it was about to die. The club was folding when he agreed to come in as manager.

He turned the club around, and it was back in the Premier Division. His team has been hit badly by injuries, and he has lost a lot of players as a result.

But Dundalk have been turned into a strong Premier Division team that even the top teams fear. For that to be maintained, Ciaran must make some big calls now. I await to see if he does.

Dundalk play St Mochtas in the cup next Friday in Oriel. There will be extra time and penalties if required. St Mochta's very surprisingly gave up home advantage to play in Oriel Park as they were drawn out of the hat first.

Dundalk are overwhelming favourites to win. But Mochtas come into this game against a Dundalk team that is considerably vulnerable at present.

Dundalk might win comprehensively. They might struggle and win. They might also lose. Anything can happen in the cup.

I remember in January 1991, when Dundalk played non-league Ashtown Villa at Oriel.

The stadium announcer, the late Sean McGarrity, came on the audio announcer with a minute left and said that extra time would follow at the end of the game if it finished a draw.

Just at that point, the Ashtown Villa keeper launched a huge clearance straight into the Dundalk half. An Ashtown player was onside. He ran in and shot past Alan O'Neill.

Dundalk were out of the cup. Ashtown were through. Dundalk did win the league that season. So they did have good compensation for the cup exit.

I remember in April 2001, Dundalk had to play non-league Portmarnock in North County Dublin. Dundalk were managed by Martin Murray. They were in the First Division at that time.

Dundalk and Louth sports clubs were being allowed into competitions after being banned after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Cooley in North Louth.

Crowds were banned for a while, and games were played behind closed doors. But this game was allowed to have some supporters. Dundalk were top of Division One and went on to secure promotion.

But they were knocked out of the cup. They were beaten by the single goal. Supporters were shocked. I was not as I was used to these cup shocks.

In 1983, Dundalk were knocked out of the cup by then non-league side Cobh Ramblers. It was a huge shock for some. Dundalk were defending league champions.

Dundalk failed to qualify for Europe after they were held to a draw by Sligo in the league. It spelt the end of Jim McLaughlin's reign as Dundalk manager.

Be under no illusion, this will not be an easy game. But Dundalk should advance. A good cup run is what Ciaran Kilduff's side needs.

I see Bellurgan man Conor McCormack has retired from playing. Conor is with Galway United and will remain at Eamonn Deacy Park as a coach. He has won league and cup medals with Cork City.

He won two cup medals playing against Dundalk in those epic finals a decade ago. He arrived at Galway when Cork City manager John Caulfield moved to Eamonn Deacy Park.

Conor is a very talented player. But he has made the right decision to concentrate on his coaching career. He was never signed by Stephen Kenny to play for Dundalk.

Stephen had great respect for Conor, as has Conor for Stephen. It's just a pity the Bellurgan man did not line out with Dundalk and Stephen Kenny.

Who knows, maybe someday Conor might return to the area as a Dundalk manager. Stranger things have happened.

Shelbourne look set to sign up Sligo Rovers boss John Russell as their new boss. Earlier at the weekend, it was Linfield boss David Healy who was in pole position.

The situation changed on Sunday afternoon. Thus, it looks to be John Russell who is the next boss at Tolka Park.

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Tommy Grant from Glenwood, who was a great Dundalk supporter.

He was only in his early forties. Tommy also worked in the bar at Oriel for a period. To Tommy's parents, brothers, and sisters and friends, I wish to extend my deepest sympathies.

I also wish to extend my deepest sympathies to former Dundalk FC club media officer Daren Crawley. Darren's mum passed away early last week.

To Darren's dad, family and friends, I am aware this is a very difficult time for all of you. Darren's mum, Maureen Crawley, will be deeply missed by all of her family and friends.

Have a great week. Look after yourselves. And please be very careful out there.