St Peter’s girls shine in Navan on Leinster stage
DUNDALK lost out on adding two more records in this their record breaking season as a result of dropping two points to Bohemians in Friday night’s pulsating final SSE Airtiricity match at Dalymount Park, and striker Patrick Hoban failure to bag the goal he needed to beat Brendan Bradley’s 29 League goal record for the season.
Nonetheless the point that the champions collected in the 1-1 draw brought their tally in the 36 game League to 87, and thus gave them an impressive margin of 10 points over their nearest rivals Cork City who, as a result of their 4-1 win over already relegated Bray Wanderers finished with 77 points from their 36 games.
Had Dundalk managed to collect all three points on Friday night it would have increased their winning margin of points over Cork to 12, and would thus have created a new points winning margin for the club.
The record of 11 points was established by another Stephen Kenny team in the 2015 double winning season when yet again Cork City were runners up, finishing with 67 points from their 33 matches, while Dundalk accumulated 78 points in their 33 games.
Only twice in the 13 seasons that they have ended as champions have Dundalk managed to win the title by the such impressive margins and it is no coincidence that they did so on both occasions under the management of Stephen Kenny.
Doubtless Stephen Kenny will lose little sleep over his team’s failure to beat their own points winning margin on Friday nor will Patrick Hoban be all that concerned about his failure to set a new goal scoring record for the League.
Both will be more concerned about the injury that the striker sustained in the final minutes of Friday night’s game and which could put his participation in next Sunday’s FAI Cup final in the Aviva Stadium in doubt.
Ironically the injury occurred in a most innocuous manner, for it appeared that Hoban was caught up in the celebrations that followed Daniel Cleary heading home Michael Duffy’s corner in 78th minute for the equaliser.
The Dundalk players were running to congratulate the scorer and attention was drawn away from the fact that Hoban was lying on the ground on the edge of the box looking in considerable distress. He received considerable attention to what appeared to be an ankle injury before hobbling off to be replaced by George Kelly.
The loss of Hoban for the final would be a considerable blow to Dundalk hopes for with Robbie Benson already doubtful and Jamie McGrath having picked up an injury in the warm-up on Friday night, Stephen Kenny can ill afford to lose his star striker.
With Benson and McGrath ruled out on Friday night through injury, and Chris Shields and Dean Jarvis missing because of family commitments, along with Sean Gannon, Dundalk’s resources were stretched to the limit against a very determined Bohemians team.
The absence of Shields, McGrath and Benson from midfield meant that whether it was planned or not captain, Stephen O’Donnell had to be called into action for his first League appearance since breaking his leg in Waterford last May.
It also meant that Michael Duffy started in very unaccustomed central midfield role with Dylan Connolly coming in on the left flank.
It didn’t take long for Bohs to assert their authority on the game by exploiting Dundalk’s weaknesses in midfield, and they could have added to the one goal that they scored through Dinny Corcoran in the 22nd minute for the champions had to be thankful to ‘keeper Gary Rogers who took over some very smart saves.
Patrick McEleney when playing in a deep midfield role in the first half was Dundalk’s most effective player, but he was moved forward when midway through the half John Mountney switched with Duffy in an effort to stem the home side’s midfield dominance.
Bohs still had to the better of the early part of the second half and were unlucky not to grab a second goal when Corcoran hit the post, but gradually Dundalk’s superior fitness, and Bohs failure to sustain their efforts told, allowing Dundalk come more into the game.
They got their reward with Cleary’s fine equalising header and McEleney could have won the game and those two extra record making points had he shown more composure in the final minutes when he blazed wide of an open goal.
A draw was however a fair result to a fine game, played before a large crowd, including hundreds who travelled from Dundalk, and with little at stake for either team, it was a credit to the players that they put so much into the game. ST Peters Athletes made the short journey to Navan race course on Saturday for the uneven ages Leinster Cross Country Championships.
This is a splendid venue for hosting the Championships in what is a tough but fair course.
The top performers for the Dromiskin based club and not for the first time this year was the Girls.
Once again Niamh Brady and Dearbhla Allen excelled, Niamh’s form which seems to improve every week reached a new season peak when she finished in sixth place and earned her place on the Leinster team for the upcoming National Championships, as well as winning an individual medal Niamh also led the Louth County team to a provincial Bronze team medal. Lucy Smyth returned to represent the club in the same under 14 and ran well in what was her first race for a long time.
The ever willing Dearbhla Allen also ran a very brave race in a very large field of Athletes and managed to grab the last of the twelve individual medals and take her place on the Leinster team for the National, Dearbhla was also part of the Louth under 12 team that won Gold in the inter Country Competition. Indeed it was a great day for Louth Athletics as all of the County teams that were entered managed to qualify for the National Championships.
The St Peters club had a team compete in the boys under twelve and although the team didn’t qualify all four lads have it their all and can be very pleased with themselves, both Harry O’Reilly and Ben McKeown were part of the Louth team that finished fourth and boys were well supported by team mates Ruairí Carpenter and Jon McKevitt.
The boys under 14 race also had a St Peters team compete however it wasn’t to be their day. Mark Litchfield managed to be the third scorer on the Louth team that also finished fourth just three points of the bronze medals.
The other members of the team were Cian Gorham, Sean Allen and Conor Litchfield. The day commenced with two non Championship under ten races hosted by Meath Athletics, both Emily and Hannah O’Reilly ran really well in the girls race as did Donacha Reidy in the boys race.
Next up is the Louth Senior Cross Country Championships this Sunday which will be preceded by Juvenile Cross Country relays of 4 X 500M races.