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Photo: Stephen Gormley (Red Eye Photo Agency)
Jack Charlton – a hero in two countries
Dundalk drew 1-1 with St Patrick’s Athletic as the Irish Premiership finally resumed after a 21-week gap since football came to a stop back in March due to COVID19.
Things however are far from back to normal as the match was played in front of an empty stadium as it is still not deemed safe for fans to return to matches in Ireland just yet.
It was a slow start to the match with Dundalk having most of the possession early on. However the match finally sprung to life when Dundalk’s Serbian debutant Stefan Čolović nipped in to get the ball off McNally after a heavy touch from the defender before squaring the ball to Hoban to make it 1-0 to Dundalk after 27 minutes.
Patrick Hoban scores opener for Dundalk
Photo: Stephen Gormley (Red Eye Photo Agency)
But as happens so often in football players’ minds seem to switch off directly after they have scored and from the re-start, St Pats’ Shane Griffin crossed the ball in from the left to former Dundalk player Robbie Benson to level the match at 1-1.
The match was truly alive now and only a few minutes later Dane Massey gave the ball away to Dan Ward who shot past Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers but hit the post. The ball came back out to new St Pat’s signing Titov but his effort was cleared off the line. St Pat’s were really putting Dundalk under pressure at the end of the first half.
After the break Dundalk got on top and took control of the match with Shields firing his shot just over St Pat’s bar after a great ball from Sean Gannon.
But it was Greg Sloggett who had the golden chance of the second half. A great ball in by Duffy from the right wing and Sloggett from only six yards out headed it over the bar.
You could actually hear Sloggett screaming “Yes!” when he headed the ball as he was so sure he was going to score!
The match ended 1-1 with Dundalk feeling disappointed to drop two precious points in their quest to retain the title, especially with current league leaders Shamrock Rovers extending their lead at the top of the table to 5 points having both played 6 matches.
The league is due to finish in October and with only 12 games left to play Dundalk cannot afford to drop too many more points if they are to secure their third league title in a row.
