Doherty leads Dub to the Malthouse Cup

Oriel Park, Saturday 9 August 2008, 12:00PM

Dundalk (1)1 Dub FC (4)5

Dubdalk Malthouse Cup

Dub travelled to Oriel Park to play their normal preseason friendly. The first dub players at Oriel decided to follow the smell of pish when choosing a changing room, given that it was a hot day and there were no windows at all it didn't feel one bit like 'The home of football' more like 'The home of Incontinence'.

That said, the home changing rooms were apparently immaculate, maybe it was a psychological management decision.

After Phil lifted team morale by singing the Music Man the second version of the team was called out and Dub took to the large Astroturf pitch. Dub started with the wind and settled into their passing early with plenty of time and space available. The midfield three of Cormac, Phil, Sean (with Michael drifting all over the place) were connecting well with the back four but the large pitch meant little support for Chris and Donal for most of the match. A nice passing move down the right wing found McGurk on the overlap who calmly took the ball into the box and picked a perfect pass to Donal just outside the six yard box. Donal calmly placed it in the top corner of the car park.

A few minutes later from wide of the left Donal made up from his earlier miss with a top notch strike from a tight angle outside the box. Keeper had no chance as it dipped over him to go in off the underside of the bar. 1-0.
As Dub tried to keep the passing going McGurk sold Phil short with a pass into the box which gave De Faoite the opportunity to go past them both. McGurk had none of it and brought the Dundalk man down with a professional foul, penalty. The Dundalk striker made no mistake, 1-1.

Dub continued to pass throughout the first half and extended the lead from a cracking free kick from big Chris, curling it round the wall and into the top corner, Alan shearer celebration followed, 2-1.

Harvey picked up the ball at centre back and strolled through the middle of the park Beckenbauer style before looking up and playing a cracking through ball to McCann who beat the keeper at the back post, 3-1.

Another through ball found McCann chasing the ball into the area and was shoved off the ball by a Dundalk defender, penalty. Captain Phil reluctantly made the decision to take the penalty himself as he as a record of 123/125 penalties to his name (stats to be verified), the decision would have been harder to make if K Hill had of kept himself fit for the match as the accident prone ejit as yet to score. Phil slotted the penalty home 4-1.

That rounded up an effective first half for Dub who took most of the chances that fell.

The second half was much slower paced as both the size of the pitch and the wind took effect.

The Dub back four saw more of the game as Dundalk pushed their midfielders onto the last man but Conan, Docs and Harvey dealt effectively with the foreign (not Dundalk) strike force. McGurk had a harder time holding position as Michael playing right wing was AWOL, he was more interested in talking the ref into the Man of the Match award.

The pressure down the right lead to the most horrendous foul that Oriel Park has seen since it opened. The Dundalk left winger went down under a tackle from McGurk, the yell was so loud that Kristian was straight on the mobile to the emergency services. After the players found out there was feck all wrong with the diving fecker the laughter from every player on the pitch and also the ref made him sulk back to his own half of the pitch.

There was still time for Art (the younger Kernan) to win the ball back in his own half and play a superb through ball to Smyth. Smyth scurried down the right wing and centred for Mullan who capped a superb individual display with a cool finish. Full time saw Dub victorious in the Dubdalk Malthouse Cup 5-1. Michael was awarded the MOM by Stevie Wonder aka 'The Ref'. Later on the trophy was presented to the superb Mark Harvey (with Sean Doherty graciously ruling himself out "I really don't think I had a good second half" - such high standards from the modest number four.

As for what followed that night - poker game with beer, Hill and Conan kicked out of night club, Phil failing to turn up for his cake, the kebabs ..... never again!

Squad

Alan Plunkett, Michael Smyth (sub 80 mins), Conan Hodgkinson, Mark Harvey, Sean Doherty, Jimmy Lavery, Ryan McGaughey, Donal McCann, Sean Mullan, Cormac Kernan, Chris Hodgkinson, Phil Doherty

Subs

Art Kernan (80 mins)

Match Statistics

Goals	Phil Doherty Chris Hodgkinson Donal McCann (2)
Assists	Mark Harvey Donal McCann
Yellow cards	-
Red cards	-
Man of the match	Mark Harvey