Dundalk’s greatest need is a striker to put the ball in the back of the net

Improved displays in recent matches but injuries to personnel playing well will not help the cause

DUNDALK may be in the market for a new manager/coach to replace Stephen O’Donnell, but even a coach with the tactical genius of Pep Guardiola would have difficulty in turning possession into goals with the players currently in the squad at Oriel Park.

It’s not a manager/coach that the club needs most but a player who can put the ball in the net and unless they unearth one soon then relegation is inevitable.

Sadly, that is the legacy that O’Donnell has left behind, for while he brought several good players to the club, a number of whom excelled against Bohemians on Monday night, his failure to insist on keeping Pat Hoban, John Martin and Daniel Kelly, or replace them with players of equal quality, has cost him his job and it is becoming increasingly likely that it will cost the club its Premier Division status.

The club’s fans, a respectable number of whom travelled to Dublin on an awful Monday night, are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated with the team’s failure to score in seven of their 10 league games, with their tally of goals and points – three goals and four points – the worst in the Lilywhites’ history.

Those fans saw their team match, if not outperform, Bohs for much of Monday’s game but in the first half especially, when they had the gale force wind at their back, they practically camped in their opponents’ half but rarely looked like turning possession into goals.

Joint-coaches Liam Burns and Brian Gartland have done a good job since taking over, building on a good performance against St Patrick’s Athletic, and the two changes they made from that game, reverting Archie Davies to his best position at right-back and bringing the under-used Paul Doyle into midfield, while Mayowa Animasahun was recalled for the injured Zak Johnson, helped in steadying the ship.

The changes, especially moving Davies back and introducing Doyle, contributed to easily the best performance of the season, with outstanding displays by George Shelvey in goal, Zak Bradshaw and Davies in defence, Daryl Horgan in midfield, where he had easily his best game since returning to the club, Robbie Benson, who provided the main, indeed the only, goal threat, and Robbie Mahon who, until he sustained a serious injury that necessitated his removal on a stretcher, was always looking to get behind the well-organised Bohs defence.

Indeed, it was difficult to fault any of the players for effort, for they worked tirelessly throughout, showing the confidence to get on the ball that belied their bottom of the table position, and even when Bohs scored, they kept plugging away in vain to get an equaliser.

They won a succession of corners and set-play situations, especially in the first half, but didn’t have the physical presence in the box or the quality of delivery to turn all those opportunities into a goal.

Yet, ironically, they were undone in the end by the best delivery in the game, an excellent free by Dayle Rooney that found James Akintunde in space behind a number of defenders to get his head to the ball.

BEMOAN

Understandably, Dundalk will bemoan their lack of luck in not getting a break in games, with a deflected effort, an own goal, a penalty or a ball that breaks fortuitously in the box, but the reality is that they are not making chances and the few that they do create, like two excellent deliveries across the box on Monday night from Mahon and Horgan, were not converted.

In both cases, Jamie Gullan (cutout) tried manfully to get on the end of each cross and no-one could fault the Scot-Scottish striker for effort but he hasn’t the presence in the box that is needed, or the finishing touch.

It was an il-lustration of the game that while Dundalk dominated possession, they never really tested the Bohs ’keeper Chorazka, while on three occasions in the second half, Shelvey was needed to produce excellent stops. It is difficult to know where the team goes from here as they head for Sligo on Friday, for failure to turn good performances into wins in the last two games since the new coaching team took over is sapping the confidence out of the players.

They haven’t had a lot of luck either with injuries for Johnson was settling nicely into the team when he got injured against Pat’s and, likewise, Mahon was starting to show the benefit of a run of games when he, too, was injured against Bohs.

Sligo await encouraged by their big win in Oriel and while the team looks a lot better balanced under Burns and Gartland, goals, or the lack of a goalscorer, is the problem they are unable to solve.

FRIDAY’S GAME

For Friday night’s game, the new coaching team decided that a change in format was needed from the O’Donnell era, with the most radical being the decision to play Davies on the right side of midfield in what was basically a 4-5-1 formation.

That meant that they went without wingers with both Ryan O’Kane and Sam Durrant left on the bench, and Mahon, who got his first start in Derry, retained on the left side of the midfield.

It was clearly a gamble to play Davies so far forward in a role he occupied only on a few occasions, but that call, combined with leaving out both wingers, was designed to make the team more defensively solid.

Viewed from that perspective, the selection worked, for the team was a lot more compact, compared with the ease at which Derry played through them the previous week, for they managed to limit Pat’s, whose confidence was high coming after their win over champions Shamrock Rovers the previous week, to a few chances.

Another surprising change was recalling Shelvey in goal for his first appearance since his nightmare night against Sligo Rovers, with some expressing the view that Ross Munro, who did little wrong five games, was unlucky to lose his place.

Gartland and Burns also recalled Andy Boyle, opting for his experience, in preference to the youth of Animasahun, but an early injury to Johnson, which was a blow, given the composure of the Sunderland loanee on the ball, allowed Mayowa to come back into central defence, where he did well.

There wasn’t a lot between the teams in the early exchanges, as Pat’s were content to see how the changes in Dundalk’s coaching set-up impacted on the team, while the home team, in trying to bed in their new formation, didn’t take a lot of risks with the ball.

A strong, blustery wind, laced at times with heavy rain, didn’t help the players on the lively surface and as a result, there was a lot of scrappy play and, consequently, not a great deal of goalmount incident.

For Dundalk, most of their promising moments came courtesy of Benson and Horgan, who interchanged in playing as the support to lone striker, the hard-working Gullan, but all too frequently crosses into the box lacked accuracy, or a lack of numbers and a physical presence in the final third.

Dundalk’s best spell was immediately after the interval when encouraged by growing support from their fans, they mounted a succession of sustained attacks that threatened that elusive first home goal of the season.

Unfortunately, it never arrived with Benson’s stinging shot from outside the box bringing the only real save of note that the visiting goalkeeper, Danny Rogers, was called upon to make.

Indeed, it was Pats’ in a breakaway who had the best chance of the game when Shelvey pulled off a fine save to turn a Mason Melia shot over the crossbar.

In the end, it was Pat’s who threatened to take all three points as the effort that the Dundalk players put into their game at the start of the second took its toll.

The new coaching team took the view that it was a point gained, rather than two lost, against a team challenging for a top place.

DUNDALK WILL BEMOAN THEIR LACK OF LUCK IN NOT GETTING A BREAK IN GAMES, WITH A DEFLECTED EFFORT, AN OWN GOAL OR A PENALTY