St Patrick’s Athletic 1 Dundalk 1
At first glance, Dundalk just dropped two valuable points. Inchicore was no place to stumble. Not now. Not with a game in hand on champions-elect Shamrock Rovers and 10 points to make up.
Make that nine.
In reality, former St Patrick’s Athletic head coach Stephen O’Donnell will swallow the red card, received on return to the club he left in acrimonious circumstances last winter, because this was a point very much earned thanks to Daniel Kelly’s fortuitous equaliser.
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Locals in the 3,225 crowd directed their ire towards O’Donnell and referee Rob Hennessy, who waved off three separate penalty shouts, but Tim Clancy’s side should have secured the win long before any blood boiled over.
St Pat’s had their goal inside 16 minutes. Chris Forrester got the ball rolling, picking out Eoin Doyle, miles from home, who spread it down the right for Billy King. The winger’s low cross was decent but Mark Doyle’s delicate assist gifted his onrushing namesake a 10th goal of the campaign.
Or so it seemed. Replays proved it was an Andy Boyle own goal as Doyle took an accidental touch before miscuing his shot. The Dundalk centre half kindly redirected the ball into the top corner.
On paper, XI versus XI, St Pat’s looked the better side. They had more of everything that was needed until O’Donnell diluted the night with a raft of clever changes.
The contest was meandering until Steven Bradley entered the fray. The Scottish winger, on loan from Hibs, has been an instant hit at Oriel Park.
Clancy reacted to the reaction by introducing Serge Atakayi, only signed Friday lunchtime to replace Darragh Burns, after the teenager went to MK Dons. Born in Kinshasa but capped underage by Finland, Atakayi appeared to win a penalty on debut when Boyle knocked him over in the box.
Hennessy, harshly, disagreed.
Tunde Owolabi had a chance to kill the game but the side netting kept Dundalk afloat. And then it happened, completely against the game’s flow, Kelly snatched a 77th-minute equaliser with a wicked deflection.
Plenty of belated urgency ensued. Eoin Doyle was next to go down in the Dundalk box, and was duly booked by Hennessy, before Mark Doyle headed on to the crossbar.
When the yellow cards started to flow, O’Donnell took two and watched from the tunnel as Kelly really should have bagged a winner.
If the title race is already a foregone conclusion, and there’s increasing evidence that Rovers have enough resources to cope on the domestic and European fronts, four clubs are scrapping for two lucrative European slots.
It is real, club-altering cash. For example, €500,000 for winning a European Conference match, which comes after €3 million prize money for reaching the group stages.
Also, failure by either St Pat’s or Dundalk to finish second or third in the league would severely damage their ability to attract the calibre of player needed to stop Rovers turning the 2020s into one long trophy parade. What’s worse, the talent they are pursuing will probably land in Tallaght or Derry.
St Pat’s, as FAI Cup holders, finally launch their Europa qualification campaign at home to Slovenia’s NS Muru next Thursday, so their fans were keenly aware of the importance attached to this game. They remain fourth in the table but this result gives Derry and Dundalk some breathing space above them.
Now for a European interlude.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Anang; Brockbank, Redmond, Grivosti, Breslin; McCormack (Atakayi, 60 mins), O’Reilly, Forrester (Lennon, 86 mins), King (Owolabi, 69 mins); M Doyle, E Doyle.
DUNDALK: Cherrie; Macari (Bradley, 59 mins), Boyle, Connolly, Bone (P Doyle, 65 mins); Kelly, Benson (Adams, 88 mins), Hoban, Leahy (Hanratty, 88 mins); Sloggett, Ward (Martin, 65 mins).
Referee: Rob Hennessy.
