The Spectator – New Season, New Attitude

So the FAI have finally grown a pair and got tough. ‘Quelle surprise!’ as they say in Abbotstown... and Turner’s Cross and the Brandywell. Derry City’s dual contracts issue was clearly a breach of the rules but considering how finances work in the League of Ireland (players double jobbing as coaches, officials and bar men, enforced pay cuts, creative dismissals, Bohemian bookkeeping, etc) it still seemed rather harsh for the Candystripes to be demoted on the back of a bit of financial jiggery-pokery. The situation at Cork City seemed to be simpler. The club has been criminally mismanaged for several years. The club has ridden roughshod over its players, creditors and supporters, yet it took a legal winding-up a fortnight before the season for the FAI and the Independent Licensing Committee to take action. This was partly due to the fact that it was slightly difficult to nail down and prove actual breaches of the rules (unlike Derry), but seemed to be influenced more by an insanely zealous belief in the necessity of Premier football in Cork.
So with Derry and Cork banished and (nearly) all remaining clubs forced to face financial realities and a level playing pitch, this League of Ireland business promises to be a walk in the park in 2010. Sure haven’t Dundalk won seven and drawn one of eight games so far? That’s if you count pre-season friendlies and the Leinster Senior Cup. And when were winning, we’ll count them. With the sending of Derry and Cork to the naughty step that is the Discover Ireland Division we were, theoretically, the third best team in the country last season. And now we’re storming through pre-season with an exciting squadful of players and a dynamic young manager- how difficult can it be?
Dundalk started the season last week with a trip to Cork City. Scratch that, a trip to Bray Wanderers, the only team The Spectator knows of to have been relegated twice in one season and still end up in the top flight. It was not an ideal situation for Bray. They had prepared a First Division squad for a First Division season only to be offered Cork’s place in the Premier at the last. Still the choice of a slogging it with Bohs, Rovers and Dundalk in the Premier was infinitely preferable to toiling across eleven counties in the First Division. Eddie Gormley managed a couple of decent last-minute signings in Richie Baker and Robbie Doyle to bolster their squad but a long hard season looks likely at the Carlisle Grounds.
Not that Wanderers looked any less prepared for the season than Dundalk last week. The good thing about last week’s performance in Bray, and possibly the only good thing about it, was that it left a whole lot of room for improvement. Dare The Spectator suggest that a back three doesn’t work very well against a pacy attack? Dare The Spectator suggest that a five-man midfield could have done more with the ball? Ian Foster has stated that he will be flexible in formation and tactics, a welcome statement and a concept that has been alien to Dundalk FC in recent years. Adaptability will be key if we are to successfully experiment with formations, take on a range of challenges and go on to add the League of Ireland trophy, the FAI Cup, EA Sports League Cup, Leinster Senior Cup and Europa League to the Jim Malone Trophy which already resides in Oriel.

This article originally appeared in the Dundalk v Drogheda United Matchday Magazine, 14 Mar 2010