Welcome back to Dundalk for the start of the 2024 season.
To speed things along I’m really going to concatenate how I do these posts. Like not doing the key highlights package for instance. Also I’ll be shortening the match descriptions. If these are something you really like please let me know and I can add them back in.
Lets take a quick look at our schedule.
Three league games and a couple of cups – the President’s cup i should imagine will be versus Shamrock Rovers as we won both the cup and League – Could be Finn Harps, who we beat in the final.
16th February 2024 – Cobh Ramblers (H) – Irish Premier Division
FT Dundalk 0 Cobh Ramblers 0 Att 3,327 (36 Away)
No way we were getting past Higgins tonight (7.6 Man of the Match). Underwhelming, though on any other day this could have been 5-0.
Need to plug away and get that cohesion up.
20th February 2024 – U.C.D. (H) – Leinster Senior Cup 4th Round
FT Dundalk 1 (McEleney pen 96) U.C.D. 0 Att 2,364 (7 Away)
Jesus, we could hit a cow’s arse with a banjo. Thankfully a McEleney penalty gets us the win, but after 30 minutes extra football we didn’t need. A very slow start to the season. 31 shots on target and only a Penalty to show for it…
1st Knockout round for the UCL – Was not expecting Chelsea to get spanked in the 1st leg!! Porto also showing how tough our group was.
2nd set of League games have happened – Derry & Cork have started off strongly.
23rd February 2024 – Shamrock Rovers (H) – President’s Cup
FT Dundalk 2 (Watts 22, Benson pen 36) Shamrock Rovers 0 Att 4,500 (225 Away)
A much better showing. Russell Watts put us ahead with a nice volley finish from a McGrath cross, and Benson put away a penalty following a lunge on Russell Watts by Dylan Watts 🙂 18yo Russell Watts Man of the Match playing on the left wing, a bit of a troublesome position for us to this point.
Into the Irish Hall of Fame 🙂 Might be top 5 by the end of this season.
Cork go 3 for 3 with a good win over Finn Harps.
Leinster Senior Cup 4th Round Results – All as expected, or rather no shocks.
HULL OFFER JOB INTERVIEW
Championship, 20th, 7 points clear of relegation, 12 games left. Okay Finances. No thank you.
Our U19’s beat Malahide Utd 7-1, goals from Bosun Lawal, braces from Barney McKeown, Harry Durham & Brian Stapleton.
Couple more Leinster Senior Cup 4th Round results.
NEW SIGNING (1st July 2024)
Steve Seddon
- 26yo D/WB/ML
- 5ft 9in
- Started his career at Birmingham, time in game in the scottish Premiership at Killie & Ross County
- IRL on loan at AFC Wimbledon currently
- £3.8k/wk
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Seddon
Steve Seddon signs for 2.5 years and will arrive in July. Will be a top quality left-back at this level. I will follow his time left with Birmingham closely.
BRISTOL CITY OFFER JOB INTERVIEW
Championship, 13th, 13 points clear of relegation, 11 games left. Secure finances. Much bigger club (7 times the wage bill) but I’m enjoying building an empire here in Dundalk. Turning this down.
Leinster Senior Cup QF Draw – Drogheda at home. Nice, misses Shamrock/St. Pat’s.
26th February 2024 – Finn Harps (A) – Irish Premier Division
FT Finn Harps 0 Dundalk 3 (O’Malley 5, McEleney pen 15, Jordan Kelly 29) Att 1,428 (320 Away)
A good win, over and done with in the first half hour. Steven O’Malley with his first goal for the club, Patrick McEleney with a nice penalty after O’Malley was brought down and Jordan Kelly with a nice header at the far post after great work on the left by Brian Connolly – Jordan’s first goal after coming back from injury. Derry City the last team with a perfect record currently. And we play them next, in 3 days. 4 lads in the IPD team of the Week – Ryan, Roy & Dara in defence and Steven O’Malley on the wing.
Big win for Man City in the UCL 1st Knockout Round 1st Leg. Salah with th hat-trick away at Lazio put Liverpool in a good spot.
Roma pluncked by Bayern – Rafael Leao (IRL with AC Milan), who moved to Bayern from Milan in game last August (2023) for £61M. Arsenal sneak a win away in Lyon.
29th February 2024 – Derry City (A) – Irish Premier Division
FT Derry City x Dundalk x (McGarvey 78, 90+3) Att 1,595 (325 Away)
Expected a tough-one today. Their danger-man Simon Morrow is the best forward we’ve played against in the League. Put he went and got injured just after 20 minutes. Keeper Lawlor had a really strong gam, and Derry looked good in the first half, but Dundalk took over in the second. That said it took until 12 minutes from time to open the scoring – Colin McGarvey with a nice finish following a lovely Nathan Ngoy free kick setting him free. We rounded it off in stoppages, Colin again with a lovely header from a Robbie Benson in-swinger. 38 games unbeaten in the League, 14 clean sheets a row in the League, 22 games in all domestic competitions dating back to a 2-2 versus Cork City in the FAI Cup QF on 16th September. We’ve not lost domestically now for 55 games!!!!
So that’s February – a decent month all-in-all.
We’re just not letting goals in, which is superb. A slow start but we’ve hit our straps with rotated teams with games every 3 days or so. March gives us 5 league games and a Leinster Senior Cup Quarter Final. St. Pat’s and Shamrock will be tests as always, 4 matches at home will be lovely. See you soon.