READY TO LEAD THE CHARGE
After missing all three clashes with City this season, Lilies captain is...
IN the Border town where he lives and has become ‘immersed’ Stephen O’Donnell has noticed a marked increase in the number of kids wearing Dundalk jerseys.
‘You see them with the likes of McEleney, McMillan and Benson on their backs. When I first arrived, it was all Man- U and Arsenal j erseys,’ he observed.
Are there any shirts with O’Donnell written on them?
‘A couple. I don’t think they like my boring style. They like the boys who go past lads,’ says the Galwegian with a grin.
He isn’t quick, rarely scores and has a list of injuries which would impress the A&E interns in Drogheda’s Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, but he provides the oil which greases the Dundalk engine.
Just as he did at Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers, where he won the first two of his five League of Ireland titles, his worth is valued highly by his manager, and his team-mates.
When Stephen Kenny was appointed manager of Dundalk five years ago, his first signing was O’Donnell, who had played for him at Rovers.
It was a hard sell but Kenny is like the Canadian Mounties, he invariably gets his man.
‘“It’s a soccer town”, said the manager when he was signing me and I never thought I’d still be here five years later,’ recalled O’Donnell. ‘Stephen said if we can manage to get some momentum going here, the fans would come out and support us.’
Kenny knew that would only happen if Dundalk were successful. He needed leaders in the team he was about to build, and identified O’Donnell as a cornerstone.
‘In his first year, I made Stephen club captain. He was our natural leader,’ explained Kenny
‘Others have emerged, Brian Gartland, Dane Massey, while Chris Shields captained the team in the League Cup final.
‘It’s important that we have a leadership group now. Stephen has always been part of that. He’s the quintessential captain and he’s been one of the great players in the modern era.
‘He’s been a big influence for us. It’s been a golden period for him, but he’s earned it.’
O’Donnell’s value to what Dundalk have built was evident on that intense night in the Oriel bear-pit in October 2014 where they edged out Cork City to clinch the first title under Kenny’s stewardship.
At half-time it was scoreless and Cork City were on course for the title but soon after O’Donnell broke the deadlock with a rare goal and Dundalk kicked on.
His contribution was astonishing as he’d been written off for the season with cruciate knee damage six months earlier. Somehow, he recovered, not just in time to play, but to deliver a decisive blow in a gripping title duel.
It was a similar selfless story in the first of the Dundalk-Cork City FAI Cup finals in 2015. He was struggling with a groin problem in the build-up and could only make the bench.
Before half-time Sean Gannon got injured and in the reshuffle Shields went to right-back and it was to him that Kenny turned to shore up the trenches.
It was a gamble, which came unstuck when O’Donnell pulled up sharply midway through the second half. His Cup final cameo appeared over, yet he stayed on the park. ‘I wasn’t injured enough in the sense that I couldn’t move, I could still get about 75 per cent,’ he recalled.
‘You don’t want to burn another sub and the way that the game panned out, it was a case of sitting on the ball in the centre circle and getting us playing. I didn’t really have to alter much of my game. It would have been different if I’d had to go around chasing.’
Nine managers out of 10 would have taken their player off but Kenny trusted him to do his job.
And while Richie Towell grabbed the headlines for his extra-time winner, Dundalk’s Cup-final hero was their hobbling captain who stubbornly refused to leave the bridge.
His knack of standing tall in the line of fire surfaced again in the FAI Cup semi-final replay against Shamrock Rovers last month, as Gary Rogers recalled.
‘Talking to Stephen in the semifinal at half-time, he wasn’t feeling great, his stomach was a bit iffy. Yet, you see him popping up in extratime with a goal,’ said the experienced keeper. That shows the character and mental resolve he has. That sort of stuff brings everyone with him. You don’t want to let yourself down, and you don’t want to let your skipper down.’
Yet, as the 2017 season unfolded, and Dundalk stuttered, O’Donnell wasn’t spared. It’s the way things always have been in Dundalk where support for the local club runs as deep as anywhere on the island.
When things are going well, the fans are a 12th man, when standards slip, they let you know about it. ‘People had sort of written him off this season,’ acknowledged Kenny. ‘I could hear the whispers “Stephen O’Donnell is finished…he’s lost his mobility, he’s slowed down.” Looking at him now, he’s in great shape and ready to play a big part on Sunday.’
O’Donnell won’t go ‘past many lads’ at the Aviva but his reassuring presence is vital to Dundalk’s Cup final game-plan.
Three times in the League this season, Dundalk have fallen short against Cork, managing one point out of nine. Pointedly, he wasn’t fit to start any of those games. This time, he is.
‘ Stephen has had a f ew moments in his career where he’s thinking “am I going to get back at all?”. He’s shown immense mental fortitude to overcome so many injury set-backs,’ observed Kenny.
‘The big pitch at the Aviva finds you out if you’re not moving well. Stephen looks like he’s moving terrific, the best he’s been all season. He’s really getting into good form and hopefully he can bring it into Sunday.’
O’Donnell has come a long way from his teenage years at Arsenal where he never got a game and is arguably the most influential midfielder in Irish club football since Pat Byrne marshalled the four-in-a-row Shamrock Rovers team of the 80s.
For Dundalk supporters, young and not so young, Sunday’s Cup final challenge is not so daunting with their captain courageous leading the charge.