A night when everyone was proud to be from Dundalk
‘TIME is ebbing away. There’s 88 minutes gone here. Once again I can tell you Dundalk 2 BATE 0.
‘No, you’re not reading a comic. This is not Roy of the Rovers stuff. This is real stuff here in Tallaght and Dundalk really deserve to be ahead.
‘If they don’t get out of this game tonight football should be stopped because they’re the better team and they are playing these guys off the park but at the moment BATE are still in it.
‘Daryl Horgan again. Midfield. Loses it out. It comes to Kendysh. He plays a short one. Robbie Benson is clean through on goal. Can he put it in? ‘Yes!!! ‘Yes!!! ‘It’s over! It’s over!!!! ‘Robbie Benson! ‘A back pass back was intercepted by Robbie Benson. He’s clean through on goal. The goalkeeper comes out. He advances but Robbie just knocks the ball past him and Tallaght has erupted here. Has erupted!
‘I’ve erupted! Gussie has erupted! Alan Byrne has erupted and why not? This is something I never thought I’d see in my life but it’s here. It’s happening in front of us. This is what football is all about. This is why we love football, the ups and downs of it. Tonight we’re on the right end of it. We are on the up!’
John Murphy’s commentary on Dundalk FM last Tuesday August 2nd summed up the mood of a town.
It was a night when everyone was proud to be from Dundalk.
A night that will never be forgotten by all those in attendance.
A night that can never be replicated.
No one spontaneously combusted as Dundalk FC made history at Tallaght Stadium but there was an overflow of emotion that manager Stephen Kenny described as ‘ecstasy’ afterwards.
It certainly was a drug we all wish we could package.
Grown men and women were brought to tears as the Dundalk side of 2016 created history, overcoming a 1-0 first leg deficit against a European heavyweight to book their place in the group stages of the Europa League at worst.
Only Legia Warsaw and 180 minutes now stand between this team and progression to the group stages of the Champions League.
Few might have believed beating BATE was possible but last Tuesday’s win has turned all of us into believers. Not only did Dundalk beat the Belarusians but they played them off the park and won with something to spare. Now anything is possible. While many headlines after the game focused on the money Dundalk had won, somewhere in the region of €5.8 million to date with more to come, this was not about financial windfalls.
Yes, it will go a long way to securing the club’s future and hopefully bettering the facilities at its disposal but that is a conversation for another day. Tuesday was all about the victory, about the glory and about the joy.
This was the stuff of a Disney movie and you still have to pinch yourself to think that just four years ago Dundalk FC came within hours of going out of existence.
Back then I’m sure the question was raised by one or two people about whether or not it was worth saving?
After Tuesday, we’re all glad it was. Nothing quite compares to the pride in seeing your town and your club achieve the impossible and it’s fair to say all our lives would be a little worse off without Dundalk FC in it.
This is a side to be admired and one which can surely now be deemed the League of Ireland’s greatest of all time.
Stephen Kenny has assembled a group that are not only delightful footballers on the pitch but great characters off it too. Each of them makes themselves available to supporters, young and old, and that bond is what makes the current journey such a great thing to be a part of.
There’s no reason it has to end here though. At worst there’s another eight European matches for the Lilywhites and hopefully there’ll be many more special nights.
It’s doubtful anything will ever compare to the joy of seeing David McMillan hit the net twice or Robbie Benson making sure of the win but then again who knows? There is no limit to Stephen Kenny’s ambition and seemingly no cap on where this side can go.
What made this such a stunning result was that Dundalk had been so comprehensively outplayed in the first leg in Belarus. Indeed, despite Mikhail Gordeichuk’s goal being soft in the end, even Dundalk fans with the most rose-tinted glasses had to admit that they were fortunate to be just trailing by one ahead of the return leg.
The mantra from the Dundalk camp was that we can only get better. BATE had given all they had got but only led narrowly.
It was thrown up that the Belarusians weren’t the best of travellers but they did have a knack of just about getting the job done and they knew that one goal would require Dundalk to score three.
It seemed impossible but Kenny had previous having done the exact same thing 13 years ago with Bohemians.
BATE have come a long way since then and are now Champions League regulars who took four points from AS Roma last season.
Yet Dundalk proved every bit a match for them. This wasn’t smash and grab stuff. Yes, Dundalk rode their luck at times but the sides finished with the same number of shots at goal and it was the home side who looked like they had the extra zip in the tank.
Bar a shaky enough start, was an ultra-disciplined display which the foul count of four to 17 epitomised. Winning in Iceland was one thing but the Heroes of Hafnarfjordur evolved into the Tallaght Titans on a night when each man put their body on the line for the cause.
The defence was superb throughout, with Paddy Barrett growing in stature which each game in Brian Gartland’s absence. Chris Shields and Stephen O’Donnell were inspirational in the centre of midfield while around them the likes of Patrick McEleney and Daryl Horgan created endless problems for the visitors.
With that kind of creativity and David McMillan in the form he is in, chances were always going to emerge and, crucially, Dundalk took them.
The end result was a multi-million euro payday but the feeling at the end was something that money simply can’t buy.
Having been outplayed for most of last week’s first leg, it looked like the game would follow a similar trend when BATE came flying out of the traps.
Captain Vitali Rodionov had two sighters of goal in the opening eight minutes with his second attempt having to be blocked at close range by Andy Boyle after Igor Stasevich and Mirko Ivanic combined down the left after seizing on an error by Shields.
There were then two major let-offs for Dundalk in the space of a minute around the quarter hour mark. Firstly Yuri Kendysh flashed a header just wide at the near post from Stasevich’s corner before Aleksei Rios drilled a long range shot just wide of the post after Ronan Finn had squandered possession.
Finn had been a doubt before kick-off with a groin injury and eventually succumbed to it in the 32nd minute. It would prove a game changer with his replacement Patrick McEleney the chief architect in the brilliant Dundalk revival that would follow.
He almost conjured up a goal for his side straight away with a superb diagonal ball to John Mountney on the right, who beat Artur Pikk before seeing his low drive turned around the post by Sergei Veramko.
That got Dundalk going and a minute before the break they levelled the tie on the night. After a brilliant piece of control and turn by McEleney, he picked out Daryl Horgan. The tricky winger then produced some fantastic play on the left to tee up a cross for McMillan to head home to the
right hand corner of the net off the inside of the post.
BATE, whose chances largely dried up after the 16th minute, attempted a reply on the restart but their best chance was fired just wide by Alexsei Rios on 55 minutes after a Paddy Barrett header had landed kindly for him.
That miss was to prove costly as within four minutes Dundalk would have their noses in front. Great work on the right by McEleney saw his deep cross fired back across the face of goal by Dane Massey with McMillan arching backwards to head home what was his seventh goal in European competition – making him the League of Ireland’s top scorer of all time in the Champions League ahead of Glen Crowe and Jason Byrne.
As Tallaght rocked, soon reality hit. There was a big half hour or more ahead.
BATE knew that an away goal would put them back in the driving seat and they almost conjured it up on 67 minutes when substitute Alexander Hleb dragged a shot just wide.
They would have other efforts too as the clock ticked down but each was down the throat of Gary Rogers.
Dundalk continued to search for the insurance strike they needed and almost found it in the 75th minute when McEleney saw a shot blocked at close range by Kendysh.
Dundalk were at their very best in this closing period, outpassing and frustrating their opponents to the extent where Rodionov was fortunate to stay on the field after losing it with Boyle by lashing out at the defender’s back two minutes from the end. It was his seventh foul but he was soon put in his place by Barrett, who was in no mood to be intimidated. Both men, along with Stasevich, were booked.
You got a sense at that point that BATE’s race was done but Dundalk made sure of it a minute from the end though when a loose pass by Kendysh saw substitute Benson race clear to dink to the net with his weaker right foot.
It’s doubtful that anyone watching will forget where they were or how they felt at that moment.
Just like last October when they lifted the league here, Dundalk were singing in the rain in the Tallaght. It’s a ballad that will live long in the memory and be sung about for many years to come.
The journey doesn’t end here though.
Dundalk are 180 minutes from the Champions League. It’s not a dream. It could soon be a reality though.