Five-star Lilywhites take their trophy back
SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE
ON the night the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title returned to Oriel Park, Dundalk served up a five star display against managerless Sligo Rovers to lift the trophy in record breaking fashion.
To mark their coronation night a new banner adorned ‘The Shed’ side of the old venue declaring ‘We got our trophy back’.
That has been something of a formality for a few weeks now but the retrieval mission was one that actually started at the end of last season.
Exactly 12 months ago on Saturday Dundalk hosted Bohemians in what was their first match in almost exactly three years without the tag of champions. As the sides took to the field before kick-off the club’s PA operator Mickey Duffy opted to play the Pavarotti classic ‘Nessun Dorma’.
Not many would have got the association at the time but the track was a nod to the fact that the Lilywhites had been officially dethroned by Cork City three nights earlier.
‘Nessun Dorma’ translates to ‘Nobody Shall Sleep’ with the reference being that no one at Oriel Park would rest until Dundalk reclaimed their position as ‘Champions of Ireland’.
The song has been a topic of constant debate at Oriel Park this season but on Friday night, 364 days after its first airing, it was officially retired with a live performance by the man whose voice has greeted each of the other nine Premier Division sides on their visit to the Carrick Road venue this season, David Martin - a son-in-law of club president Des Casey.
The song’s ending will be familiar to all who know it. ‘Vinceró! Vinceró! Vinceró!’ ‘I will win! I will win! I will win!’ Stephen Kenny’s men have had that exact mantra for much of this season.
New chief executive Mal Brannigan, brought in at the start of February by the club’s new American owners Peak 6, had vowed on his introduction to fans in the YDC that Dundalk had only loaned Cork the title and would be taking it back again. He, his manager and the players have been good to their word.
The turning point for many came following the 2-1 defeat away to Waterford in early May. A game which saw the club lose captain Stephen O’Donnell to a leg break culminated with a near hour long meeting in the dressing room of the RSC. The response following that was immense with 13 wins in-a-row. Shamrock Rovers might have broken that streak but the last 20 league matches have yielded 18 wins and a draw - very much the form of champions.
The presentation might have been in the offing for some time but in summing up their year, Kenny’s side did it in record breaking style by overtaking Bohs’ record from a decade ago of most points in a League of Ireland season. That tally of 85 points now stands at 86, with still a game to be played away to The Gypsies next Friday to extend it further.
There were those who questioned what the hunger of this Dundalk side might be with the title wrapped up. The opening 10 minutes or so answered those questions in emphatic fashion.
Sligo, who sacked manager Gerard Lyttle in midweek, were hit by a blitzkrieg from a home side determined to streamroll their way into the Aviva for the FAI Cup final at the start of next month.
The pressure told as early as the fifth minute when Dundalk were awarded a penalty after a mazy run by Patrick McEleney saw him upended by Kyle Callan-McFadden. There was a reprieve for the visitors when goalkeeper Ed McGinty pushed Pat Hoban’s penalty onto the post and again a minute later when Michael Duffy had the ball in the net only to see it chalked off for offside.
The breakthrough finally in the ninth minute with John Mountney breaking the deadlock as he lifted the ball over the Sligo keeper with a neat finish from Ronan Murray’s pass.
The pressure continued after that with Duffy flashing a shot wide on 11 minutes before McGinty was called into action again to twice deny Murray.
The siege finally yielded a second goal on 33 minutes when a good break saw Hoban lay off to Duffy on his left. The winger then threatened to do his almost trademark curling shot only to give both Callan-McFadden and McGinty the eyes to drill low and hard to the bottom left hand corner for his 13th league goal of the season.
The third then arrived three minutes before the break when a cross from the left from Dean Jarvis saw Mountney rise bravely above Adam Wixted and McGinty to head home his second of the night.
The Mayo man’s hopes of a first career hat-trick were ended by a half-time substitution but his replacement, Dylan Connolly, was just as fired up and caused Jack Keaney all sorts of problems down the left.
Just three minutes after his half-time introduction he crossed for Hoban who glancing header was just to the left and wide. After another header straight at McGinty, it looked like it wasn’t to be the striker’s night when he finally beat the keeper from a Connolly pull back on 55 minutes only to see it cleared off the line by Callan-McFadden.
He would finally get his name on the scoresheet in the 59th minute, however, when he converted a second penalty, won by Sean Gannon after he was fouled by Niall Morahan.
Hoban then added a second on 65 minutes to equal Brendan Bradley’s record of 29 goals in a season when he fired home from another Connolly cut back.
Dundalk took their foot off the gas slightly after that and despite two further chances for Hoban to complete his hat-trick, the home side were perhaps fortunate to keep their 21st clean sheet of the league season.
On 76 minutes an audacious effort from Lee J Lynch clipped the top of Gary Rogers’ crossbar and when the keeper was beaten in stoppage time Gannon was on hand to block Mikey Drennan’s effort on the line. It summed up Sligo’s night when Lewis Morrison blazed the rebound wide from close range.
For Sligo, who had hot favourite for the vacant managerial role, Liam Buckley, watching on, a rebuilding job awaits after a difficult year.
For Dundalk, it’s one down with the possibility of a double to follow..
It’s four league titles out of five and the first under their new owners.
Nessun Dorma might have been retired on Friday night but you suspect there’ll be plenty to sing and dance about in Oriel Park for some time to come.