Super Mac inspires Dundalk to Pat’s win
Dundalk 3 St Patrick’s Ath 0
DUBBED ‘Saint Patrick’ McEleney during the game over the PA and compared to a man renowned for the ‘Hand of God’ afterwards, it’s fair to say who stole the show for Dundalk against St Patrick’s Athletic on Saturday night.
While Patrick McEleney might not be conjuring up miracles, he is certainly producing pieces of magic that are worth the admission to Oriel Park alone.
A stunning double against Liam Buckley’s side not only got Dundalk back on track after their defeat away to Derry City five days earlier but was further evidence of just how much the 24-year-old has grown in stature since last season.
Make no mistakes about it, McEleney was no passenger in Stephen Kenny’s side last year. Far from it, in fact. Yet the transformation from a useful cog to the main driving force behind the club’s bid for a fourth title in-a-row is striking.
His brace on Saturday night means he has already scored more league goals this season (4) than he did in the whole of 2016 (3).
It was fitting that his memorable double came exactly a year to the day that he limped off in a 1-0 home defeat to Cork City last season. On that occasion McEleney was the best performer on the field before his hamstring went after 54 minutes.
Despite a handful of substitute appearances after that, it would be 12 more matches before he started for Dundalk again and with Kenny’s side firing on all cylinders there were times he was forced to play wide and out of position.
Perhaps the biggest damage that occurred in that Cork game from McEleney’s perspective was mental. His talent and footwork have never been in question but he is currently going past players as if they are not there. The Derry man possesses arguably the best burst of speed in the league but we’ve probably seen more of that in a handful of outings this year than we did in all of last.
The fear of another injury layoff perhaps led him to play within himself slightly but hard work over the off-season and an inflated status to that of being the main man has seen McEleney flourish, with his first goal on Saturday night undoubtedly one of the finest that Oriel Park has ever witnessed.
His second wasn’t bad either but perhaps in a funny way McEleney’s biggest contribution on the night was a cross a minute before half-time that was scruffily finished by Ciaran Kilduff.
Dundalk had dominated prior to that but as time wore on they were growing more and more frustrated as Conor O’Malley pulled off save after save.
The keeper was called upon for the first time inside the opening two minutes when Robbie Benson thread a superb pass through for Michael Duffy who was denied by the legs of the 22-year-old.
McEleney and Duffy would both go close after that before Pat’s had their one big chance of the half on 11 minutes when Alex O’Hanlon’s free to the back post was met by the head of Gavin Peers, whose effort had to be kept out by the legs of Gary Rogers.
Dundalk continued to threaten and on the quarter hour mark Benson’s ball out of defence saw Duffy win a leg race with O’Malley only for Peers to get back and force a throw.
The goalkeeper would then deny John Mountney momemnts later before Sean Gannon had a shot blocked down in the aftermath.
Kilduff then headed over before O’Malley denied McEleney and Benson in quick succession.
A feeling that it might not be Dundalk’s night began to grow on 37 minutes when Mountney got down the right to cross to Kilduff whose header went back across goal.
Then on 44 minutes, the opener finally arrived. McEleney skipped to the by-line on the left before crossing to Kilduff who beat Darren Dennehy to it to squeeze a shot to the bottom right-hand corner.
That changed the complexion of the game at the break but no one could have predicted what was to happen within two minutes of the restart.
Benson won possession back in midfield before picking out Kilduff, who in turn laid the ball back to McEleney close to the halfway line.
The 24-year-old then burst forward at speed, weaving his way through five Pat’s players before flicking past O’Malley with the outside of his right boot to finish in the bottom right hand corner.
It was one of the great Oriel goals and led to manager Kenny comparing it to something only Diego Maradona could have produced.
“We were saying who could score a goal like that and I’m afraid to say it. Messi? I wasn’t going to say him but the Argentinian before him. It was like that.
“It was a very unique goal and reminiscent of Maradona the way he sort of beat six players or whatever and chipped the keeper on the run. It was that type of goal. I don’t know who could score a goal like that and the centre of gravity to beat the players the way he did, it was something special.”
Of course, McEleney hadn’t quite finished torturing the Pat’s defence and would add another on 53 minutes to kill the tie off as a contest. Kilduff got the better of Peers before laying off to McEleney, who burst past Rory Feely as if he wasn’t there before toe-poking past the outrushing O’Malley. Done and dusted. If there could be any complaints after that it was that Dundalk didn’t put a Pat’s side, who are a shadow of the team who pipped them to the league in Stephen Kenny’s first season in charge in 2013, to the sword.
There will be time for the manager to instill that ruthlessness in the new look side that has always been there over the years. For now he will be pleased to see their ability to respond to a setback is as strong as ever.
There were chances after that with Conor Clifford firing over on the hour mark before Brian Gartland headed just wide from a Mountney corner eight minutes later.
Kilduff was then denied a second 18 minutes from the end by another fine stop from O’Malley.
With one eye on the trip to Cork next week, Dundalk faded out of the game a bit towards the end with Christy Fagan unlucky not to grab a consolation five minutes from time when he got in behind the home defence only to pull his shot wide.
Kurtis Byrne then had a shot tipped over by Rogers in stoppage time with the keeper, making his first start of the campaign, denying Dennehy from the follow up corner.
It was back to winning ways and while there’s still improvements to be made, with McEleney weaving his magic Dundalk can conjure up even better displays going forward.