David Sneyd

THIS WEEK HAS been all about the numbers needed to survive for Dundalk.

The 42 understands that an injection of €360,000 was required in the short term to ensure the club currently bottom of the Premier Division could see out the season and fight relegation on the pitch.

John Temple, the local barrister who took control from Brian Ainscough in a dramatic takeover on Tuesday evening, already informed the players that while a deal was secured to avoid liquidation, he would not be in a position to pay their wages until next week.

Jon Daly’s squad accepted this having already been told by Ainscough earlier this month that payments would be missed.

That sum, believed to be around €25,000 a week, will be forthcoming from next week.

With debts also understood to be in the region of €1.5 million, and despite the Government confirming a Sports Capital Grant to the tune of €500,000 for upgrades to Oriel Park, it was no wonder that Temple spoke with such stark clarity about the situation facing one of the most storied institutions in Irish football.

The 14-times League of Ireland champions, winners of the FAI Cup on 12 occasions, and European trailblazers in 2016 and 2020, should be braced for what is to come.

“We’re far from out of the woods. The club is in serious financial difficulty. Just undertaking to pay the wages is one aspect. The creditors are banging down the door every hour and emails are coming in every second hour from people who want to appoint receivers and run to the courts and everything else, and are threatening all sorts,” Temple said.

He spoke of €2 going out for every €1 that could come in, about the need to make Oriel Park the hub of the community, and how it has fallen on the people of the town to salvage their club.

“It’s bleak,” Temple admitted. “I didn’t put us in this situation. The fans didn’t put us in this situation and the players certainly didn’t put us in this situation. The reality is we are where we are and how are we going to get out?

“Make no mistake, we’re on life support. We need everyone to dig deep and get in behind the club. We have tough decisions to make, we have tough times ahead. Some of the decisions are not going to be to everyone’s liking. That’s just the reality of what we have coming in.”

Now let’s look at what Dundalk might need to avoid the drop on the pitch.

With Bohemians in eighth place on 33 points (and one game in hand on Dundalk), it’s reasonable to assume they won’t be dragged into the promotion/relegation mix – even after losing at home to Drogheda United last night. They’re now five clear of Drogs in ninth and nine ahead of the Lilywhites.

Only once in the last decade has a team been unfortunate enough to earn more than 33 points and end up in the bottom two – Waterford fans will not need a reminder of how they earned 42 in 2021 and still got dragged down to a play-off they eventually lost.

Still, maybe that 1-0 result at Dalymount Park courtesy of Frantz Pierrot will have Bohs much more anxious than before, especially with a Dublin derby away to Shamrock Rovers on Monday.

Dundalk travel to face Sligo Rovers tonight. The Bit O’Red have won six games in a row at the Showgrounds, a streak that stretches back to a 3-0 defeat there to Bohs on 17 May. Their home form is why they could yet finish this campaign in third spot.

All Dundalk should be concerned by is finding a way to avoid the drop automatically and earn a shot at redemption through the play-off. With seven games to play they have 24 points. One more win takes them to a tally that has been enough for ninth twice in the last five 36-game seasons (ignoring the truncated Covid-19 campaign in 2020).

Drogheda have a game in hand on their Louth rivals and just need to find a way to keep them at bay, while they also have the carrot of a FAI Cup semi-final clash at home to Wexford on 6 October.

There is added intrigue because the First Division side are also set to be in the mix for play-off series given they are in third place, three points off UCD in second spot.

Dundalk’s sole focus is on survival, by any means necessary. Their problems on the pitch started long before the gravity became known off it. Their last win was the 4-2 Louth derby success against Drogheda on 12 July, a fixture that saw them lose influential midfielder Paul Doyle to a hamstring injury.

Daly has confirmed that the 26-year-old is back in contention to face Sligo and, fitness permitting, he will be available for the run in.

And of course, the last game of the regular (if you can call it that) season just happens to be an away trip to Drogheda on 1 November.

Dundalk must hope their number isn’t already up by then.