Credit where it’s due as Delaney heads vital goal

POOR GARY DELANEY. At around 9.45 p.m. last Friday he scored the type of goal that all centre-halves must visualise in their most pleasant pre-match dreams. Ambling forward for a Jonny Bonner free-kick in the 85th minute, he cleverly negotiated the traffic in a crowded box, timing his run and jump to perfection before directing a powerful meaty header well out of reach of Richard Brush and into the corner of the net.

And as he was mobbed by his colleagues behind the goal, the feeling endured that this would be the clincher in a previously scoreless game, guaranteeing Youths a precious three points on the road for only the second time this season.

So, what was the problem? Well, the big number 4 was in the process of making his way back for the Finn Harps kick-off when the stadium announcer declared: ‘the Wexford Youths goalscorer was number 10 Aidan Keenan’.

Sorry my friend, I don’t think so. However, on my stroll back to my car afterwards I started to wonder had my eyes been deceiving me as Youths’ own social media platforms also credited Keenan with the goal, along with some prominent sports websites.

Finn Park in Ballybofey, like Ferrycarrig Park, has two separate press areas, one on each side of the ground. And as it happens, the two seats on the bench beside me in the stand where I sat were unoccupied, so the question of who had scored wasn’t raised within earshot.

Then I wondered had the reporters elsewhere been unsure of the scorer and simply went with the flow when they heard Keenan’s name announced. Or perhaps the P.A. man was seated near them and looked to the collective for misguided assistance.

It remained on my mind as I began the long journey home spanning exactly one-quarter of the counties in Ireland: Donegal, Tyrone, Monaghan, Louth, Meath, Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford in that order.

I was only interested in my pillow and my bed when I arrived home after 2 a.m., but I awoke later Saturday morning to read a good-natured tweet from Gary Delaney clarifying with his club that he had indeed scored the winner. While I was glad to be proven right, it also made me wonder how on earth the sole goal could have been credited to the wrong player by so many people.

I should stress that I’m often incorrect too, and a couple of incidents from this season readily spring to mind. Firstly, I gave the assist to Delaney for Chris Kenny’s goal against Bohs in Dalymount Park because I thought he had got the near-post flick-on to Craig McCabe’s throw-in.

Not so as I discovered the following Monday night on the excellent ‘Soccer Republic’ on RTE2. Delaney had provided plenty of nuisance value alright, but the ball had actually come off a defender’s head.

I could attribute this error in some part to the floodlights at the Phibsborough venue which are the worst in the league in my view. Either that or my eyes were in poor working order that night.

I couldn’t offer the lights as an excuse for the mistake made in Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday week as it happened in the admittedly fading evening sun. I thought Paul Murphy had fouled Paul Sinnott and then been dismissed after the Galway United man won the ball from him, but in fact that initial tussle had been with Chris Kenny. Once again, ‘Soccer Republic’ showed me the error of my ways.

Nonetheless, these were incidents in games, but to miss the actual scorer is a bit much. It happens often enough though, as I can recall Stephen Last’s goal against Dundalk earlier in the season being initially attributed to Danny Furlong by the stadium announcer, presumably on the basis that any Youths goal in the opposition box had to come from the number 9 on the law of averages.

That mistake was later rectified but I’m further confused now because at some point, judging from the stats in the match programmes at Ferrycarrig Park, it would appear that the strike was taken off Last and given as an own goal.

That’s not how it looked from where I was sitting that night. I know the old cliché applies, that it doesn’t matter who scores once they go in, but I’m also a firm believer in credit going where it’s due!