Dundalk champions-elect as Cork City resistance breaks
Dundalk effectively dethroned champions Cork City at Turner’s Cross on a night when an early goal from man of the match Chris Shields was enough to give the Lilywhites the crucial victory their textbook away performance thoroughly deserved.
Compounding the deep disappointment for the home side, manager John Caulfield had to watch the second half from a commentary box after seeing red for an incident during the half-time break.
Afterwards, assistant manager John Cotter said: “All I saw as I was coming down towards the end of the tunnel, there was a few people involved with Dundalk who wouldn’t have been involved in the game tonight as such and there was something going on with one of our players.
“We tried to defuse the situation and we got our players into the dressing room and all we know is that a couple of minutes before we were going back out John was sent off.”
“That was generally what I saw, to be honest. It’s something we’ll deal with during the week.”
For his part, Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny said that since he didn’t see the incident, he would rather not make a comment.
If Dundalk win their game in hand at home to Derry City on Tuesday they will extend their lead over Cork to 12 points with just four games remaining, their much superior goal difference meaning their crowning as champions will become a matter of mere formality.
Roy Keane was among a crowd of 4,310 at the Cross but it was the Dundalk players and their travelling supporters who were still celebrating after most of the attendance had already departed, not too many of the Rebel Army still around to see striker Pat Hoban tie a black and white scarf to one of the goalposts to signal the changing of the guard.
For his starting line-up, Caulfield himself rang the changes from the side which crashed and burned against Bohemians, with the centre-half pairing of Aaron Barry and Damien Delaney — who endured a miserable 45 minutes in Dalymount Park — replaced by Sean McLoughlin and Conor McCarthy, and Mark McNulty restored between the posts in place of Peter Cherrie.
Back from injury, meanwhile, were Kieran Sadlier and Garry Buckley but Karl Sheppard, rated doubtful this week, failed to make the cut.
And amid much speculation about his future at the club, Barry McNamee was conspicuous by his absence from the squad, as too was Josh O’Hanlon, the man who’d replaced him off the bench in the 4-2 defeat to Bohs.
But, after the game, John Cotter insisted both would be back in training next week ahead of the FAI Cup semi-final against Bohemians.
And, as happened in Dalymount last time out, City suffered the blow of conceding an early goal, with barely three minutes having passed before Chris Shields, who was allowed to begin the move by coming in field almost at his leisure from out on the left touchline, ended it with a low drive to the back of the net — albeit via a deflection off Conor McCarthy — after a neat lay-off on the edge of the box by Pat Hoban.
In contrast to the team which had looked shell-shocked from the start against Bohs, City replied to the early blow with a much more spirited response on home turf, Graham Cummins sparking loud but vain appeals for a penalty after he appeared to be grappled in the box by Brian Gartland, and Gearóid Morrissey forcing Gary Rogers into a diving save.
But, for all the home side’s attempts to exert collective pressure, it was another scintillating run and cross by Duffy which set Hoban up for a chance to double Dundalk’s advantage in the last minute of the first half but, for once, the striker supreme failed to make the desired contact with an acrobatic effort.
As often when these two clash, the tackles were feisty and tempers were never too far from boiling over but it still came as a shock at the start of the second half to see Caulfield had been sent off.
Looking on from a commentary box position, the City manager saw the pattern of the first half continue into the second, with plenty of perspiration but precious little inspiration and, crucially, almost no penetration.
And, long before the final whistle — by which time Damien Delaney had made a late cameo as a striker for Cork — it was clear Dundalk had the game and now almost certainly the title all wrapped up.
McNulty, Beattie, McCarthy, McLoughlin, Griffin, McCormack (Delaney 89 Morrissey, Keohane, Buckley (Coughlan 61), Sadlier, Cummins (Daly-Butz 72).
Rogers, Gannon, Hoare, Gartland, Massey, Shields, Benson (Jarvis 86), McEleney (McGrath 75), Mountney, Duffy, Hoban (Kelly 91).
Neil Doyle (Dublin.
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