No need to engage the panic button yet
SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
DUNDALK fans will be hoping that Friday night’s opening SSE Airtricity Premier League game against Sligo Rovers at Oriel Park is not a prelude of the season to come.
There, encapsulated in one night, was the nightmare of an opening night flop at the Abbey.
Two precious points dropped, and perhaps even more damaging, serious injuries to two key players, Robbie Benson and Patrick McEleney.
Yet it all started so promisingly. A close season in which for once the club managed to retain their best players, add a few very exciting prospects, and while there was a change of management at the top with Stephen Kenny’s departure, there was every expectation, even within the hardnosed betting community, that the appointment from within of Vinny Perth as Head Coach would not damage the club’s prospects of retaining their League title.
That renewed optimism fired by a smooth pre-season schedule, unlike some previous years, caught the mood of the town, and despite a live TV screening of the game, the biggest first game crowd for many years turned up to see the odds on favourites for the title.
Yet within five minutes of the start that sense of optimism was pierced like a burst balloon.
Robbie Benson, a key operator for the team in midfield, capitalised on a ponderous moment from new Sligo Rovers defender, Dante Leverock, dispossessing the Bermudan and scampering into the box where he was taken down by ‘keeper, Ed McGinty.
An obvious penalty to give Dundalk the start their early dominance deserved, and it all added to jubilant mood of the crowd.
Slowly however the mood of celebration abated as it became obvious that Robbie Benson was seriously injured, and his subsequent departure on a Order of Malta stretcher after a five minute delay, increased the level of anxiety in the ground, and no doubt contributed to Pat Hoban’s failure to convert the penalty.
As they gathered their thoughts, players, management and supporters naturally shared a deep feeling of empathy with Robbie Benson for minutes earlier he had taken his place for the new season after a period of reflection before committing his future to Dundalk for another season, and a pre-season in which he, like the rest of the squad, were put through a rigorous schedule.
Now within minutes as he lay on the Oriel Park pitch sensing that he had done serious damage to his leg the thought must have crossed his mind that the season that he keenly anticipated could be over almost before it began.
Hopefully not, and that he will be back to play a major role in the campaign.
His departure clearly affected the players and disrupted their rhythm, for while the former UCD midfielder is not always appreciated by some fans, he is a vital cog in the pattern of the team’s midfield play, and dictates the tempo of the play because of his ability to influence matters in both boxes.
Over recent seasons he has built up a vital understanding with the players round him like Chris Shields, Michel Duffy, Patrick McEleney and Pat Hoban, combining well and creating space into which Benson ghosts to score or create goals, much as he was doing on Friday night when he was brought down for the penalty.
Many anticipated that the Sligo goalkeeper would get a red card for such a blatant foul, but new rules prohibit such a drastic option, although it was a complete mystery as to why the referee, Mr. R. Harvey (Dublin) did not book the ‘keeper.
Indeed most Dundalk supporters and no doubt the management were far from happy with the performance of the Dublin official who seems to embroil himself in controversy every time he visits Oriel Park.
His failure to book the ‘keeper was compounded by the leniency he showed in allowing some of the Sligo players, Mahon and McFadden in particularly, get away with tackles that bordered on the reckless, with Chris Shields avoiding seriously injury when he was caught late, and Patrick McEleney not as fortune when he caught another over zealous tackle.
McEleney’s eventually had to be assisted from the field with what looked like another serious leg injury and the prospect of a lengthy absence for two such vital midfield players could send Dundalk back into recruitment mood before Friday’s transfer deadline.
Fortunately enough one of the new close season recruits, Sean Murray showed considerable promise when he replaced Benson, and throughout was the team’s most progressive attacker, helping himself to a sweetly struck equaliser just after the interval.
In that first half, even allowing for the disruption that Benson’s departure caused, Dundalk played some excellent football at times and created gilt edged chances for Hoban, who crucially took a touch too many, and Murray who unluckily saw his downward header bounce up and over the bar.
Predictably having failed to turn their dominance into goals, Dundalk conceded with Sligo’s first shot on goal, a free kick by Jack Kearney round the outside of a poorly constructed ‘wall’ and even though the wind assisted effort cruelly came off the surface in front of Gary Rogers he will be disappointed that he didn’t keep the effort out.
The temptation to feel sorry for themselves after a half in which they should have been two or three goals up was quickly dispensed by the Dundalk players when, four minutes after the break, a combination of John Mountney and Hoban knocked the ball in Murray’s path and his lovely right-footer from outside the box flew into the net off the fingers of the impressive McGinty who deservedly took the man of the match award.
After the tonic of that early goal Dundalk should have kicked on and collected all three points, but the intensity in their play, evident in the first half, fell away, and thereafter the created few chances the best falling to Mountney who screwed his shot wide after Duffy did great work to forge the opening, Hoban who shot over, Kelly who fired an opening he created himself with a slick one-two into the goalkeeper’s hands, and substitute, Georgie Kelly who got too much onto a near post header from Dane Massey’s cross.
The loss of the two points may not be fatal, as was the case with the opening draw with Bray last season, but with the prospect of losing Benson and McEleney for a lengthy period, it will be an early test for Vinny Perth and his backroom them to tinker with their systems to include replacements, perhaps Jamie McGrath for McEleney and Murray for Benson.
There should be no need to press the panic button yet, for Friday night was one of those nights when chances normally taken were wasted and when the unfortunate injury to Robbie Benson hung over the game and the crowd like a dark pale.
Naturally the players will be disappointed and a few lacked their normal sharpness, but they know that they have the quality to quickly recover from this setback, with a trip to Ballybofey to meet Finn Harps on Friday night a fixture on which minds will have to be focused.
Playing their first home game of the season, the newly promoted Harps will relish the challenge of taking on the champions and with a big crowd at their backs, Dundalk will need to be at their best to come away with the points.