Game 14

St Pats 0-2 Dundalk

Like a phoenix rising slowly but surely from a raging dumpster fire, Dundalk defeat St Pats.

We’re at the summer break in the League of Ireland. No one is really sure why we have the break any more but we have one. And it’s at this juncture that we must say goodbye to a great friend and companion.

Watch LOI, we hardly knew ye. Well we knew you well enough to know that we had to turn the sound off on away games. And that we weren’t going to get any replays of anything. And that we would probably lose the feed at some point. And that ads would be too loud. But you know what? It was pretty revolutionary wasn’t it? We got to watch every single League of Ireland game for the first time ever. Sure it wasn’t perfect but it was better than nothing.

We’re moving on to new things after the break and maybe, just maybe, some of us will get back to watching the games in the flesh where you wish you could turn the sound off on away games and you don’t get to see any replays.

The last game before the break was something to behold. After the demolition at dalymount came the…the…return at Richmond? Two goals, a clean sheet, a solid and coherent defensive display? That’s good stuff.

A win is a win. Sure, all of the issues that were there before are still there. Sure, there is a long way to go to get to European places in the league. Sure, they did get beat 5-0 last week but either side of that result they’ve beaten Pats and Rovers. How encouraging and annoying is that?

Who knows what’s going to happen in the second half of the season, would anything surprise you? It does seem, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, that Longford and Waterford have too much ground to make up on us so I’m pretty sure we won’t get relegated. Pretty sure.

We have contract issues, we have player issues, we have no permanent manager, we still have a lunatic at the wheel but the team have shown, two Friday nights on the bounce, that there is still potential there.