Shamrock Rovers 2
Dundalk 4 (aet)
DUNDALK WON’T BE listening to your ‘changing-of-the-guard’ narratives, thank you very much, once again dismissing all logic and reason at the end of a season unlike any other.
They won back their FAI Cup in a wild and wonderful final at the Aviva Stadium tonight, a Dave McMillan hat-trick sealing a delirious 4-2 win after extra time.
The League of Ireland season was denied a great occasion on which to end – the empty stands robbed it of that – but a season filled with strife, uncertainty and flinty resolve was at least sent on its way with a great game.
A tight first-half gave way to a gloriously chaotic second, which saw Rovers lose their lead and claw their way back to parity in the space of five wild second-half minutes. Stephen Bradley’s champions then spurned their chances in extra-time before Dundalk took theirs, regaining the Cup they lost to Rovers a year ago.
It was a fabulous game, and that the final triumphed over the teeth-rattling cold was an achievement in itself.
The cold really was brutal, resolute and determined to be remembered; the kind of cold that seeps through your skin to settle and chill your bones. Ronan Finn tossed water over his head as he emerged and you were worried it might be frozen over by half-time.
The fog that swamped Croke Park earlier today was less of an issue here, suspended overhead to give the empty stadium an eerie wreath.
The tense, goalless first half was typical of these Cup finals, though Dundalk’s was atypical of the precedent of the finals they played under Stephen Kenny. Gone was the ambition to dominate the ball: instead they ceded that ground to Rovers and aimed to use the pace of Michael Duffy and Sean Gannon to catch Rovers on the break.
Thus Rovers dominated the ball and created virtually all of the chances, though many of them were restricted to long range. Graham Burke twice forced Gary Rogers into action, the second a wickedly whipped free-kick that the Dundalk goalkeeper did superbly to push around the post.
The empty ground gave us the chance to hear just how blithely Jack Byrne demands the ball from his team-mates – Finn got an earful in the early stages for not passing to Byrne when he was available – so naturally all of Rovers’ moves were threaded through him.
His first-half highlight reel included a nutmeg on Greg Sloggett and a curled effort from distance that bent the wrong side of the post, but like his team-mates, he was restricted to shooting from range.
If Rovers’ passing lacked penetration, Dundalk’s lacked coherence. Only once in the first-half did it click in any real sense, which led to David McMillan miscuing a shot from Sean Gannon’s sharp pull-back.
Then the chaos broke loose.
Rovers took a deserved lead in the early stages of the second half, and if this was an unfamiliar Cup final approach by Dundalk, they were undone by familiar problems
If it was an unfamiliar Cup final approach from Dundalk they were undone by familiar problems: their Cup final was sundered by the same set piece issues as have undermined their Europa League games.
Lee Grace – on as a half-time replacement for the injured Joey O’Brien – rose highest to head a Byrne corner to the back post, where an unmarked Aaron Greene nodded the ball in from close range.
Dundalk’s defensive approach would be a bit more forgivable if they were capable of defending such basic situations.
For 69 minutes, Rovers were dominant and Dundalk miserably passive, so thus 2020 decreed that Dundalk were 2-1 up two minutes later. First Shields finally asserted himself on the game by lifting the ball forward to Patrick McEleney, whose cross was controlled by McMillan and then sent pinballing into the net off both posts.
Then, almost instantaneously, they had a penalty: the scales tipping in their favour after Liam Scales, eh, tipped Dan Cleary over in the box, and McMillan scored from the spot.
The natural order was restored within two minutes, however, as Dundalk again conceded from a corner. To blame their marking this time would do Roberto Lopes a disservice, who sent a majestic front-post header arcing into the far corner of the net.
“Plenty of time” roared Lopes as the game kicked off, but Rovers attacked as if they had none of it. Rogers pawed a fierce Greene shot over the crossbar, while Aaron McEneff planted a header over the bar from the penalty spot.
Though dragged back, Dundalk grew emboldened by the game’s drama and shook off their meekness. Some fabulously mad things began to happen, with both Brian Gartland and Cleary sauntering to the edge of Rovers’ box with the ball, while in more routine action, McMillan tested Mannus with a header.
Having disappointed initially, Dundalk thrived in the madness of it all.
Rovers’ came agonisingly close to winning the Cup in the final stages of normal time, with Graham Burke’s low cross somehow evading a touch as it skidded across the goalmouth. Burke was slow to pick himself up, and even slower to lose the incredulity from his face.
Thus the final went to extra time for the fifth time in six years, and both sides kept own swinging. McMillan twice went close, before Burke spurned a glorious chance in the box after slick Rovers’ passing.
Having tormented the Dundalk defence on set pieces, Byrne then targeted Gary Rogers, but the Dundalk ‘keeper clawed away a free-kick that was destined to dip beneath the crossbar. He needed lengthy treatment on his shoulder afterward.
To add to the game’s strange, kickabout-on-the-Yorkshire-moors vibe, extra-time was scored to a series of foghorn blasts from the distant Dublin port.
With Rovers’ chances spurned, Dundalk showed further disregard for logic by flipping the game on its head and scoring from a set-piece.
A hoik into the box made its way across to substitute John Mountney, who volleyed the ball across the box to Sean Hoare, who swept the ball in from the penalty spot via a deflection off Scales.
With four minutes remaining, McMillan sealed his hat-trick and the Cup for Dundalk, driving the ball beyond Mannus having been picked out by an inch-perfect Dan Kelly pass.
In a year in which old certainties have been sundered, trust the FAI Cup final to serve up the healthy kind of madness. And trust this Dundalk squad to be remembered as one of the great sides in Irish football history.
Shamrock Rovers: Alan Mannus; Ronan Finn (Rhys Marshall, 83′); Joey O’Brien (Lee Grace, HT), Roberto Lopes, Liam Scales; Sean Kavanagh (Danny Lafferty, 83′); Dylan Watts (Greg Bolger, 83′), Aaron McEneff; Graham Burke, Jack Byrne; Aaron Greene (Dean Williams, 105′)
Dundalk: Gary Rogers; Sean Gannon (Darragh Leahy, 95′); Brian Gartland (Sean Hoare, 105′), Andy Boyle, Daniel Cleary; Cameron Dummigan; Greg Sloggett (Jordan Flores, 87′), Chris Shields; Patrick McEleney (John Mountney 95′), Michael Duffy (Daniel Kelly, 110′); David McMillan
Referee: Rob Harvey