Friendly Report: Dundalk 2 - 0 UCD
- Harry Manning
- Tue, Feb 16 2016
Dundalk continued their pre-season preparations with another win as they saw off UCD 2-0 in torrential rainfall at Oriel Park.
The game began with Dundalk confidently knocking the ball left and right across the pitch as they established early supremacy.
An early chance falling to Shane Grimes as Patrick McEleney linked up with Ronan Finn with a neat one-two before whipping it towards the back post where Shane Grimes ran to meet it with his head, however he could only direct it above the bar.
Minutes later McEleney again found space on the right flank before delivering another dangerous ball towards the UCD six yard mark. This time it found Ciaran Kilduff who knocked it into the path of Finn, but his effort was well-blocked by Gary O’Neil.
The resulting corner blossomed into another early chance as McEleney again found Kilduff but his header looped above the crossbar and onto the roof of the net.
Dundalk made their breakthrough on 16 minutes when UCD ‘keeper Niall Corbet failed to meet a John Mountney cross, allowing Paddy Barrett to glide a ball into an oncoming Finn who hit it first-time into the bottom corner.
Chris Shields came close to adding a second five minutes later when a corner ball was deflected out towards the midfield man, his 30 yard half-volley was hit with venom and it just skimmed Corbet’s crossbar.
Soon after, Mountney played in McEleney whose shot was aimed low into the corner but Corbet pulled off a decent save to deny the former Derry star.
It was starting to look like UCD full-backs were going to be in for a busy evening as the majority of Dundalk’s attacks were stemming from the channels. The UCD back line were holding tight though and managed to clear a number of menacing crosses from Mountney and Barrett.
The Lilywhites' next opportunity fell to McEleney on the half-hour mark. He controlled a ball with the outside of his boot before cutting inside and curling towards the top left corner. Alas, a little too much spin was put on the ball and it went beyond the post.
The Students began to grow into the game, creating a series of half-chances. First, Mark Langtry took a ball into his stride before unleashing a powerful effort that flew above the target.
UCD striker George Kelly then picked up the ball at the edge of Dundalk’s box. A smart turn allowed him to get his shot on target but it was handily stopped by Gary Rogers.
Langtry then sent a menacing ball towards Kelly but he couldn’t connect as well as he would have liked and jabbed it wide.
Dundalk’s second of the night arrived shortly before half-time when a defence-splitting long ball found McEleney, who held his run to beat the offside trap before tidily putting the ball beyond Corbet.
Stephen Kenny’s men began the second-half where they left off with some agile passing between their midfield herd.
The opening chance of the half fell to Shields with 58 minutes on the clock. Mountney made a breaking run from midfield before sliding Finn through who then bounced it back to Shields but his lobbed effort was too high to catch substitute ‘keeper Conor O’Donnell out.
Ten minutes later Mountney again found space in midfield before hitting a stinging drive on goal from outside the box but O’Donnell was on hand to parry it to safety.
Dundalk were almost three to the good with 70 minutes played after Grimes swung a ball into Kilduff but his close-range snapshot failed to test O’Donnell.
Michael O’Connor entered the fray with ten minutes remaining and almost had an immediate impact when Sean Gannon pulled a ball back into his path but his sweetly struck effort was thrown off target by an excellent Maxi Kougan block.
O’Connor again came close with the final chance of the game when he dashed into the UCD box before hitting a shot towards the near-post which was excellently stopped by O’Donnell.
Dundalk FC: Gary Rogers, Paddy Barrett, Andy Boyle, Brian Gartland (Sean Gannon 46 (Carlton Ubaezuono 86)), Shane Grimes, John Mountney, Ronan Finn, Chris Shields, Patrick McEleney (Darren Meenan 58), Robbie Benson, Ciaran Kilduff (Michael O’Connor 81).
Subs not used: Gabriele Sava (gk).
UCD: Niall Corbet (Conor O’Donnell), Daniel Toban (Jason McClelland 79), Maxi Kougan, Brian Shorthall (Josh Collins 81), Mark Langtry, Cathal Brady (Gareth Coughlan 88), Gary O’Neil (Sean Byrne 88), Ryan McLaughlin (Ryan Swan 65), Paul Lawless (Rob Manley 85), Dylan Watts (Darragh Black), George Kelly (Sean Coyne 65).
Subs not used: None.
Referee: Neil Doyle.
Attendance: 500 (Estimated).
Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Patrick McEleney (Dundalk).
About Harry Manning
Love of League of Ireland football began when the once-mighty Sporting Fingal FC came to be in 2008 and started playing their games not too far from where I grew up.
‘‘A former …
Subs
Subs
P | Team | Pd | W | D | L | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Peamount Utd | 20 | 17 | 1 | 2 | 52 |
2 | Shels FC | 20 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 46 |
3 | Shamrock Rvrs | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 45 |
4 | Galway Women | 20 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 38 |
5 | Athlone | 20 | 11 | 2 | 7 | 35 |
6 | Bohs | 20 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 31 |
7 | Wexford W | 20 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 28 |
8 | DLR Waves | 20 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 13 |
9 | Sligo | 20 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 11 |
10 | Treaty Utd | 20 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 8 |
11 | Cork City W | 20 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 6 |
P | Team | Pd | W | D | L | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Galway | 36 | 30 | 4 | 2 | 94 |
2 | Waterford | 36 | 20 | 9 | 7 | 69 |
3 | Cobh | 36 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 59 |
4 | Wexford | 36 | 15 | 8 | 13 | 53 |
5 | Athlone | 36 | 14 | 5 | 17 | 47 |
6 | Treaty United | 36 | 12 | 8 | 16 | 44 |
7 | Bray | 36 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 44 |
8 | Longford | 36 | 10 | 10 | 16 | 40 |
9 | Harps | 36 | 9 | 10 | 17 | 37 |
10 | Kerry | 36 | 1 | 7 | 28 | 10 |
P | Team | Pd | W | D | L | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Shamrock R | 36 | 20 | 12 | 4 | 72 |
2 | Derry | 36 | 18 | 11 | 7 | 65 |
3 | St Patrick's Athl. | 36 | 19 | 5 | 12 | 62 |
4 | Shels | 36 | 15 | 15 | 6 | 60 |
5 | Dundalk | 36 | 17 | 7 | 12 | 58 |
6 | Bohs | 36 | 16 | 10 | 10 | 58 |
7 | Drogheda | 36 | 10 | 11 | 15 | 41 |
8 | Sligo | 36 | 10 | 7 | 19 | 37 |
9 | Cork | 36 | 8 | 7 | 21 | 31 |
10 | UCD | 36 | 2 | 5 | 29 | 11 |
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