DUNDALK DISARRAY
Gio set to follow Keegan out Lilywhites exit door
FILIPPO GIOVAGNOLI saw Dundalk scramble a late point in what is set to be his last game in charge of the Lilywhites.
A group of Dundalk supporters climbed a barrier around Oriel Park and unfurled a banner that read “ran like a circus” in a clear dig at the club’s American owners.
It also featured the slogan “tempo di andare” – Italian for ‘time to go’.
Team manager Shane Keegan tendered his resignation to the club on Friday lunchtime and that news broke before kick-off at Oriel Park.
Then it emerged Giovagnoli told players that he too would be out the door at the crisis club still searching for a first win this season.
Sporting director Jim Magilton stopped short of confirming that Giovagnoli’s rollercoaster eight-month spell was at an end.
But, ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Derry, he said: “We’ll make a statement in due course. We will clarify everything that you want to ask and that will be done in the next few days.”
Magilton initially refused to answer any questions about the shambolic managerial situation and insisted he would only speak about the game.
Asked who picked the team for this game, the former QPR and Ipswich boss said: “Well who do you think picked the team? The team would have already been picked, do you not think, going into this game, going into a game like this?”
Ex-sligo Rovers boss Gerard Lyttle – who is close to Magilton – is one of the names already linked with the Dundalk job that is about to become vacant.
Asked if the players know who will be in the dugout in Derry, Magilton said: “They will know. We are in on Sunday in preparation for the game.”
And quizzed about the fans’ banner, Magilton said: “Well if you’ve lost three out of four… what were they, 20 kids? Nobody is working harder than the people within this club.”
But the curtain is about to fall on a remarkable spell for Giovagnoli who was plucked from obscurity in New York where he ran an academy.
He had no experience of senior management yet he made the most of Dundalk’s Europa League draw to reach the group stages. FAI Cup final glory in December was the icing on the cake.
But beneath the surface of those eye-catching headlines of European and domestic cup runs, Dundalk’s league form was in freefall.
And Giovagnoli’s lack of experience was reflected in a Premier Division record of just three wins in 14 league games.
The comical press conference called at the start of the season to explain the new but utterly farcical managerial situation just heightened the turmoil behind the scenes.
And that stretched all the way across the Atlantic, although Magilton insists that chairman Bull Hulsizer is not interfering in team selections.
“He doesn’t get involved in anything. Nothing. It won’t happen on my watch,” said Magilton.
With Keegan gone, Giovagnoli patrolled the touchline but was a dead man walking.
And it looked like it would be a long night in his final game as Sam Bone headed St Pat’s into a deserved lead 12 minutes into the second half.
But Dundalk rallied and scrambled a deserved equaliser late on through Junior and had chances to win it.