Big-game defeats a worry for Lilywhites
SIX games in, six points behind.
It’s fair to say that’s not the start that Dundalk or Stephen Kenny would have wanted to the season.
They now enter relatively new territory in having to hunt down the pacesetters rather than leading from the front themselves.
After Saturday’s loss in Turner’s Cross people will question whether they have the ability to respond. It’s up to the management and players to come up with the answers.
Defeats away to Derry City and Cork City would suggest there’s work to be done in getting this season really up and running.
It is worth pointing out, however, that nothing is won in March. In Stephen Kenny’s first season in charge, when they had taken just 11 points from their first six matches, Sligo Rovers had a 100% record after six games and ultimately finished third.
Indeed, no side who has ever won their first six matches in the Premier Division has ever gone on to win the title, including Cork City in 1998-99 and Derry City in 1991-92.
If Dundalk are to become only the second side to win four titles in-a-row though then they will need to up their performances in the games that matter.
While neither side was brilliant at Turner’s Cross on Saturday, it is a worry that Dundalk have been found wanting in their two biggest tests to date.
We have become accustomed to watching slick, free-flowing football under Kenny but on Saturday too often the route one approach was taken, which played directly into Cork’s hands.
That said, just like in Buncrana 12 days earlier, the side’s downfall was their own making.
Karl Sheppard’s double aside, Gary Rogers didn’t really have a save to make despite Sean Maguire having the Dundalk defence at sixes and sevens on a couple of occasions.
Errors are killing this side at present and it’s a problem that goes back as far as the end of last year when a number of slack goals were given away in Europe, not to mention in the league defeat to Sligo Rovers in Oriel Park.
On that occasion Rogers gifted his old club the lead inside the opening minute and he almost did the same for Cork on Saturday when he was caught in possession by Maguire from a back pass only for the striker to pull his shot wide from a tight angle.
If Dundalk were let off the hook on that occasion then there was to be no reprieve on 22 minutes when the visitors got done on the break for the opening goal.
Kenny would have been happy with how his side were shaping up prior to that with a teasing cross by Patrick McEleney towards John Mountney having to be cut out at the expense of a corner. When it arrived into the area, Mark McNulty punched clear and Chris Shields - making his first start of the season - was guilty of trying to take on Gearoid Morrissey on the right flank. His gamble backfired as he lost possession and seconds later Stephen Dooley released Sean Maguire down the left, who charged away from Conor Clifford before squaring for Sheppard to tap home as he made the most of Sean Gannon’s slip at the most inopportune moment.
It was always going to be an uphill struggle from there. Dundalk had already been dealt a blow in the opening few minutes when Robbie Benson was forced to retire with a hamstring problem following a coming together with Sheppard. Clifford replaced him but that meant that he was lining up alongside Shields for the very first time and their unfamiliarity with each other’s game would tell as Dundalk struggled to get going in midfield after the change.
Despite a few bursts to nothing by Michael Duffy on the left, there was an overreliance on Patrick McEleney to make things happen with no one else really sharing the responsibility. While the Derry man was well marshalled by Conor McCormack and others, just as in Maginn Park against his home town club he failed to ever really get going on a pitch that was incredibly bobbly.
Dundalk have scored some big goals against Cork over the year from set pieces but on Saturday their deliveries from dead balls and from open play were poor. Given the goalscoring capacity of the defence in this side, that’s something that needs to improve.
That said, Cork weren’t exactly brilliant either, relying on runs into space from Maguire to try and create anything of note.
Their soft opener gave them something to cling to and build on though while Dundalk were scrapping off very little as Alan Bennett and Ryan Delaney easily bossed the aerial battle with Kilduff.
While the striker was very much on the fringes of the game, he could and perhaps should have had a penalty with the scoreline still at 1-0 on 34 minutes. Duffy came in off the left to get a shot away and after it was parried by McNulty, Kilduff reacted quickest to nip in ahead of Delaney only to be felled by the legs of the goalkeeper as he looked to clear.
It looked for all the world a penalty but referee Rob Rogers was unconvinced. Perhaps it should have been no surprise. He set the tone 20 minutes earlier when he halted a corner kick from Mountney mid air to scold Bennett for bear hugging Brian Gartland from behind around the waist. There were no great appeals at the time but how that wasn’t a penalty and how he can stop a game to only speak to one player and then not actually penalise them is a mystery. It perhaps summed up Dundalk’s half that the follow up corner was overhit and came to nothing.
To add insult to injury at no penalty being awarded to Kilduff, within three minutes Sheppard would double the home side’s lead with another gift of a goal.
There appeared little danger when Maguire stole a yard on Gartland to send a hit-and-hope ball from right to left on 37 minutes. However, Rogers and Dane Massey got their wires all mixed up with the left-back’s hesitancy allowing Sheppard to nip in behind him to get the ball. By that stage Rogers was already at the edge of his area and was easily rounded as Sheppard slotted home to an empty net.
To add insult to injury, Dundalk would then have a goal of their own chalked off three minutes before half-time.
A corner was headed on by Paddy Barrett before being flicked to the net by Kilduff but instead of a goal a free out was awarded after McNulty theatrically threw himself to the ground. While Massey was near him at the time, the contact was minimal at best and the experience of the goalkeeper told as he got his side out of trouble.
After a frustrating half, Dundalk at least showed they were up for a fight on the restart with two early attempts at goal. Firstly Duffy came in off the left to get a shot away only to see it pushed away for a corner by McNulty. Then a minute later the ball broke to Mountney at the edge of the area but he couldn’t keep his shot down.
Dundalk were then dealt another blow on 53 minutes when Clifford took a ball to the face at close proximity from Morrissey and, despite his protestations, was substituted on the instruction of physio Fearghal Kerin.
Thomas Stewart would replace him with David McMillan following soon after. However, for a stage it looked like Cork would be the most likely to add to the scoreline with Barrett having to get back to block a Maguire shot on 58 minutes as the home side looked to kill the game off.
For a while it looked as though Dundalk could be there for another week and not score but the changes soon started to take effect and the visitors were given a route back into the game out of absolutely nothing on 73 minutes. McEleney’s ball into the edge of the box was laid off by Kilduff to McMillan, who fired first time to the bottom right hand corner of the net to set up a grandstand finish.
Dundalk pressed for an equaliser after that but again the route one stuff played into Cork’s hands and any hope of a late equaliser suffered an almost fatal blow five minutes from the end when Kilduff picked up a second yellow for a late challenge on McCormack having been needlessly booked in the first half for a stupid push on Kevin O’Connor.
There was one last chance a minute from the end when Duffy’s corner fell to McEleney, who laid off for Massey who saw his effort blaze over having bobbled in front of him.
Bennett would swing Gartland to the ground once more in the box in injury time but Dundalk knew they were never getting a penalty.
It was a tough defeat to take. The one silver lining perhaps was that they finished strongly and had a Cork side who should have been more comfortable on the ropes towards the end.
Dundalk are now playing catch up and there may need to be personnel or even formation changes to get the best out of this group of players.
It’s much to early to be pressing any panic buttons, of course, and with Shields and McMillan returning, Benson and Stephen O’Donnell to come back and Sean Hoare still to make his debut this side will get stronger.
Saturday was a blow, no doubt
about it, but the next five fixtures between now and the end of April for Dundalk read: Drogheda Utd (home), Finn Harps (away), Bray Wanderers (home), Bohemians (home) and Galway Utd (away). All are very winnable based on current form. The goal now needs to be maximum points from those five games.
Dundalk won the league last season by seven points having lost six times, including twice to Cork. A strong finish to the first series of games can still leave them well placed to do that again.