LEADERS SHOW THEIR MARTIN LIFTS TON WEIGHT
Shels mark Duff milestone with victory
C Kearns ......................................... 7 S Gannon ........................................ 7 P Barrett ........................................ 8 G Molloy ......................................... 8 T Wilson ......................................... 8 M Coyle ........................................... 7 E Caffrey ........................................ 6 JJ Lunney ...................................... 8 M Smith .......................................... 5 J Martin ......................................... 8 W Jarvis ......................................... 8
M Coyle 7 (O’Sullivan 65, 6) E Caffrey 6 (D Williams 65)
M Smith 5 (Burt 46)
J Martin 8 (S Farrell 84
W Jarvis 8 (K Ledwidge 81, 6)
shone in midfield
JJ LUNNEY
S Molloy .......................................... 7 A Davies .......................................... 7 A Boyle .......................................... 8 Z Johnson ...................................... 8 M Animasahun ................................ 7 J Mountney .................................... 7 H Muller ......................................... 5 P Doyle ........................................... 7 D Horgan ........................................ 7 J Gullan ......................................... 6 R O’Kane ........................................ 8
M Animasahun 7 (Benson 46) H Muller 5 (E Kenny 63) J Gullan 6 (C Elliott 25)
HAYDEN MULLER
- quiet night from the Dundalk man
REFEREE:
P W D L F Shelbourne 21 11 7 3 24 Derry City 22 10 8 4 32 Shamrock Rvs20 8 7 5 29 Waterford 20 9 4 7 30 Galway Utd 19 7 6 6 14 Sligo Rovers 20 6 7 7 21 Bohemians 18 7 3 8 20 St Pat’s Ath 22 6 6 10 22 Drogheda Utd20 3 7 10 20 Dundalk 20 3 7 10 12
This was game No.100 for Damien Duff as Shelbourne boss but the milestone threatened to turn into a millstone.
Top of the League since March 4 – that’s 95 days and counting – at one stage in the second half it looked as though they were about to give up that spot to Derry, who were leading St Pat’s at a time when Shels were being held.
Then in the 71st minute, everything changed.
Finally, Shelbourne reached the endline. Seconds later, they found the net, Will Jarvis their creator, John Martin their finisher.
One goal proved to be enough. Three points bagged, two points clear, 15 games remain.
A Pts 14 40 18 38 20 31 24 31 13 27 26 25 21 24 26 24 34 16 28 16
Tactics
At what point will people stop asking if they have a deep enough squad to go on and win it? They are proving each week that they do. Not that they had it easy here.
Dundalk’s tactics worked. As soon as the warning siren was aired, they got all 11 players behind the ball, sacrificing space on the flanks to ensure they had sufficient numbers in the central areas of the pitch.
There was more to their strategy than merely hanging on, though, the positioning of Daryl Horgan and Ryan O’Kane behind striker Jamie
Gullan offering them an outlet whenever the chance came to counter-attack.
That wasn’t too often, Shelbourne controlling the tempo and the bulk of the possession.
Yet Dundalk had planned for this, refusing to panic when they didn’t have the ball, protecting their young goalkeeper, Sean Molloy, who was catapulted into the starting team just 15 minutes before kick off when first-choice keeper, Ross Munro, went down with an injury in the warm up.
Significantly, Shels failed to test Molloy in the first half, allowing him settle into the game, Evan Caffrey placing a header wide, Jarvis curling a shot beyond the kid’s left-hand post after receiving a superb pass from Martin.
Jon Daly’s plan was working, even allowing for Gullan’s enforced withdrawal with injury on 24 minutes.
Disciplined, patient, selfless, the honesty of Dundalk’s performance was epitomised by Horgan’s 70-yard retreat to dispossess an intended pass to Caffrey on 19 minutes, and save a certain goal.
At the other end, Ryan O’Kane shot over, Shelbourne restricting Dundalk to just one meaningful effort on goal in a first half where their failure to zip the ball quickly enough across the park allowed Dundalk get to the break on level terms.
The new half brought a new problem for Dundalk, Mayowa Animasahun withdrawn following an injury he had picked up in the 42nd minute, forcing Daly to tweak his plans, moving from a 5-4-1 to a 4-4-1-1.
Watching all this, Shels boss Duff reacted to events by bringing Liam Burt in off the bench. They started to do things quicker, and a little differently, Burt running at Dundalk’s defence whereas the first half saw them deliver one predictable pass after the next.
Pressure
Chances came. There was a great shot from 25 yards by Burt, which ended narrowly off target. Lunney supplied a pass to Caffrey shortly after but hit the sidenetting.
The pressure was building. Off came midfielders, Caffrey and Mark Coyle, on came Dean Williams and a switch to 4-4-2.
And on 71 minutes came the goal, Wilson feeding Jarvis, who in turn, used his footwork to find a bit of space in the penalty area and then used his right foot to pick out a pass to Martin who came racing in at precisely the right time, sliding the ball home from five yards. Dundalk fought back.
Eoin Kenny’s shot struck the bar.
The clock ticked on beyond the 90 minutes, the final whistle greeted by cheers from the hosts. Their wait was over. Their weight had lifted.