Game 5 & 6

Shelbourne 1-1 Dundalk

Dundalk 0-0 Shamrock Rovers

Two games, both alike in disappointment…

Friday night in Tolka Park the disappointment came from throwing two points away and the disappointment on Monday night came from not taking all three points when given an incredible chance to take them.

As has been the case after each game this season there are plenty of positives to take. Nathan Sheppard bounced back from the penalty incident on Friday night to pull off two world class saves on Monday night and put in his best performance of the season.

Mark Connolly put in his best performance of the season on Friday night keeping the Greatest Team in League of Ireland History^TM and the Greatest Player the League has ever seen out of the game.

The Coaching team probably had their best game of the season as well going with a surprise 4-4-2 formation with John Martin leading the line along side Patrick Hoban which which lead to a first half where we would have absolutely deserved to go in to the break in the lead.

Everyone was good on the night, it was an excellent game of football. As much as I give ‘Them’ abuse on the Town End Podcast and on this very blog, ‘They’ have amassed a very talented squad and it proves just how much potential we have in the squad that we could go toe to toe with them and push them right to the end.

You might think it was the kind of game that would have looked good on TV? You might think it would be the kind of advertisement for the league that can show just how good the games can be and how talented the players are?

It would also have highlighted what I think was a completely pyro free night? I could be wrong on that and also if Hoban had scored at the death the shed might have exploded with pyro, who knows.

The one thing we can all agree on is how stressful these games can be. We haven’t done any meditations in a while so here goes, I hope this helps

Find a comfortable position…

Take a deep breath…

Slowly let the breath go…

When you’re taking your next deep breath in, think about all the positive performances over the beginning of the season…

As you’re exhaling you’re letting go of the frustration of the penalty at Tolka and the “HOW HAS HE NOT SCORED” thoughts that are rattling around your head from Monday night and how easily we could be top of the league right now…

Breath in…

Breath out…

Think of how many times Patrick Hoban has scored massively important goals for us and how lucky you are to see someone be this close to becoming Dundalk’s all time goal scorer…

Breathe in…

Breathe out….

If the memory of Jack Byrne being substituted after an almost completely anonymous performance enters your mind, enjoy that memory, have a giggle to yourself…

While you’re having a giggle about Jackie boy imagine Ritchie Towell trying to touch his back with his arms. He can’t. He’s too wide. If you stuck a post-it to his back that said “I’m overpaid and I’m a huge problem for this team” he wouldn’t be able to reach it to take it off…

Keep breathing and giggle if you need to, it’s fine, this is a safe space…

If you’re wondering, while you’ve been doing this meditation, if Bohs have tweeted about being a fan owned club and if a load of ‘Them’ fans have replied to the tweet calling them bottlers? They have and they have…

If you want, you can send some positive vibes to Michael Duffy…actually you definitely should do that. Get well soon…

Deep breath…

Breath in…

Breath out…