Kenny is bemused as spot kick shout is turned down
DUNDALK manager Stephen Kenny insists his side were “unfortunate” not to beat Shamrock Rovers at Oriel Park last Tuesday in a game which briefly opened a window for Cork City to close the gap at the top of the table back to two points.
A subsequent draw away to Sligo Rovers on Saturday means that that is no longer a possibility for John Caulfield’s side but Kenny wasn’t pressing the panic button at such a prospect after last Tuesday’s game.
Sami Ristila’s side were gifted the lead in the 33rd minute when Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers miscontrolled a backpass from Andy Boyle, allowing Gary Shaw to slot home to an empty net.
Rovers never really threatened after that but despite Brian Gartland levelling matters for the Lilywhites on 59 minutes the home side simply couldn’t find a winner.
But speaking to The Argus afterwards, Kenny refused to criticise his players.
“I thought we played well for long spells,” he said.
“We started well and then Rovers came back into it a bit. We gave away a terrible goal and after that there was only really one other shot against us all night. We had a lot of the play and deserved to win the game but to be fair Rovers were resolute. They defended well but we just couldn’t get that second goal so I thought we were quite unfortunate really.
“We looked like we were going to get a winner right up until the death when we had one off the line and Dean Shiels had a header which Barry Murphy saved. We’re kicking ourselves that we couldn’t get the winner but we didn’t lose the game and it could prove to be a very important point,” he said.
While one Rogers, Dundalk’s Gary, won’t want to look back on this game in a hurry, another Rogers, referee Rob, was also in the firing line after denying the champions what looked a clear penalty late on when Dane Massey went down under a Dave Webster challenge in the box.
Despite the Rovers player having a clear fist of his shirt, Rogers decided that the left back dived and booked him rather than point to the spot.
Kenny admitted he hadn’t seen a replay when he spoke to the media afterwards but insisted he didn’t know what his side had to do to get a penalty, with another possible shout late on when Ciaran Kilduff appeared to have his shirt pulled in the box as well.
“We don’t seem to be able to get a penalty at the moment,” said the manager.
“It’s just one of them bizaare things. There have been 11 penalties to Cork. I don’t think Sligo have had one all season and Cork have had 11. We’ve had three, one in Europe and two in the league, so it’s just one of those bizaare statistics.”
The home side started well with both David McMillan and Patrick McEleney forcing saves from Barry Murphy inside the opening six minutes. Sean Gannon then passed up the opportunity to open the scoring against his old side when he blazed over from 15 yards out.
Rovers slowly grew into the game and had their first chance of note on 28 minutes when Shane Hanney’s cross from the right was glanced on by the head of Shaw only for the effort to be saved by Rogers. Within five minutes Rogers was picking the ball out of his net after his howler but he did make slight amends on 36 minutes when he pushed away a vicious strike from Dave Webster.
Stung by the scoreline, the champions finished the half strongly with many in attendance at Oriel Park thinking they had equalised a minute later when Massey’s pull back from Daryl Horgan’s through ball found McMillan who crashed his effort into the side-netting.
The Louth men went even closer when McEleney crashed a shot off the post with Robbie Benson’s follow up header being deflected just wide.
Dundalk continued to press on the restart but had to wait until the 57th minute to conjure up their first real opening when Massey fired just over from a free kick. Just two minutes later though the sides were level when Gartland stole in at the near post to meet McEleney’s inswinging free to head home.
Indeed, but for Murphy the home side could have been ahead on 64 minutes when wonderful work by Horgan saw him slip Ronan Finn in only for the midfielder to be denied with a fine save at full stretch.
Massey then drilled agonisingly across the face of goal six minutes later before having a major penalty claim turned away. Horgan looked to have slipped him in with a superb ball only for the left back to go down under a challenge from Webster. It looked a definite penalty but referee Rob Rogers didn’t agree and booked the full back for a dive.
Rovers had coach Stephen Bradley sent to the stands but still managed to hold out with Webster blocking a Gartland header on the line before Shiels had a header tipped over.