DUNDALK POISED TO JOIN LEAGUE OF IRELAND GREATS
FOR Brian Gartland, Dundalk’s 1-0 victory in Cork City’s back garden last Friday was worth more than three points.
It was about making a statement that the SSE Airtricity League champions of 2014, ’15 and ’16, had the bite to go with their bark.
Because very few teams regain the League of Ireland title after losing it.
Usually, they go into decline and then transition before a rebuild but the Dundalk team is constructed on the deepest of foundation blocks.
The likes of Gartland, Gary Rogers, Dane Massey, Gannon, Chris Shields and John Mountney, were all part of the team assembled by Stephen Kenny for the title breakthrough in 2014, the first of three championships in a row.
They also took the hit when City ruled in 2017 so Friday’s act of deliverance, where Shields scored the only goal in a tight duel, was special for this hardened crew. And Gartland, 31, knew it. ‘We’ve been at each other’s throats for whatever number of years it is, and it’s healthy competition,’ said the strapping centre-back.
‘We respect Cork, we go shake their hands and we congratulate and commiserate with each other but when you do something like this (victory), to get so close (to the title) on your rivals’ ground, it matters.’
‘We’ve had a lot of hard nights down here. They had a run on us and it’s been a few years since we won but when it comes to the crunch in these big games, I think we’ve always shown our character.
Leading by nine points, Dundalk know a win at home to Derry tomorrow will probably be enough to secure a fourth title in five seasons as they would have to loss their remaining three games by a raft of goals to allow Cork a sniff.
And that won’t happen as this team is too professional, too mentally strong, for any collapse.
‘If we don’t (win) it’ll probably be the biggest collapse ever. But we’d back ourselves and we’ll be professional,’ said Gartland.
‘A lot of lads are used to winning, but then when you lose a final – as we did it before in the Setanta Cup - you gain that experience and it gives you that bit of hunger as you realise that you don’t want to be on that end of it again.
‘In football you’re not going to win everything every year but it was important to have that hunger,’ he added.
So how good is this Dundalk team? Arguably, it’s among the finest in the 97-year history of the League of Ireland.
Among the former champions, Cork United, with five titles in six seasons from 1941; Waterford, with six in eight from 1966 and the four-in-a-row of Shamrock Rovers (1984-87) set the standard of true greatness.
After that? Possibly, the Shelbourne side of 1999 to 2006, which won five titles in and were runners-up twice over eight successive seasons.
But should Dundalk kick on for and drive for five under Kenny in 2019, they would stand comparison with any to have gone before them.
A second ‘double’ in three seasons would certainly strengthen their reputation as giants and they are favourites to reach a fourth straight Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup final – UCD stand in their way at Oriel on Friday night.
Not that Gartland is expecting a straightforward evening.
‘You know what the Students are like, they’re all young players and are always very fit, all quick and clever lads who are tactically astute and who stick to their jobs. By no means will it be an easy game,’ he warned.
Defeat at Turner’s Cross came at a cost for City manager John Caulfield who was sent off after a half-time altercation with Dundalk assistant manager Vinny Perth in the tunnel.
He watched the second half from the public address booth and declined to talk to the media afterwards.
Caulfield’s case will be heard by an FAI disciplinary committee on Wednesday.
As he has already been dismissed twice this season, against Waterford in April and Dundalk in June, he could be saddled with a significant touchline ban.
Whatever the outcome, Caulfield receives an automatic suspension for his expulsion, and will be in the stands for Cork’s next game against Bohemians in the FAI Cup semi-finals on Sunday at Dalymount Park.