Dundalk 6
Linfield 0
(Dundalk win 7-1 on aggregate)
Niall Newberry reports from Oriel Park
DUNDALK BECAME THE first-ever winners of the Unite the Union Champions Cup after capping off a remarkable season in style in front of their own supporters, cruising to a 6-0 win over Linfield.
A brace from Georgie Kelly along with goals from Brian Gartland, Jamie McGrath, Robbie Benson and Patrick Hoban saw Dundalk record an astonishing 7-1 aggregate win over the Irish League champions.
The League of Ireland champions made eight changes from Friday night’s 1-1 draw in the first leg at Windsor Park. One of the players to come in for Vinny Perth’s side was Benson, who was representing Dundalk for what could be the last time, as speculation regarding his future mounts.
The visitors were without their first-leg goalscorer Shayne Lavery, who linked up with the Northern Ireland squad ahead of their upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers, as Linfield made just four changes.
Playing in their 55th and final competitive match of 2019, Dundalk took the lead after only six minutes had elapsed. Michael Duffy left Joshua Robinson for dead out on the left before crossing for Daniel Kelly, and his scuffed shot broke kindly for Georgie Kelly, who fired home from close range.
The Lilywhites doubled their advantage ten minutes later when Duffy’s corner from the right was powered home by the head of the unmarked Gartland, and the hosts simply cruised after that.
They may have missed out on the domestic treble, but Dundalk tripled their lead in the 34th minute when, after Robinson’s back-pass which may have gone out, Rohan Ferguson’s poor clearance went only as far as Duffy, who passed to McGrath.
He fired a low shot beyond the Linfield netminder.
Dundalk got their fourth in the 64th minute when Benson, who looks set to sign for St Patrick’s Athletic in the coming days, picked the ball up from Georgie Kelly’s knock-down before delightfully dinking the ball over Ferguson.
The two Kelly’s combined 15 minutes from time when Daniel was slipped in by Duffy on the left before crossing for Georgie, who glanced a header past Ferguson, who really had a night to forget.
Georgie Kelly was replaced by Hoban not long after that and he also got on the scoresheet when powering home a header from the unplayable Duffy’s corner, as Dundalk recorded their biggest win of the season.
Dundalk: Aaron McCarey; Sean Gannon, Brian Gartland, Daniel Cleary, Dane Massey; Chris Shields, Robbie Benson (John Mountney 68); Daniel Kelly, Jamie McGrath (Lido Lotefa 73), Michael Duffy; Georgie Kelly (Patrick Hoban 79).
Subs not used: Gary Rogers (gk), Sean Hoare, Andy Boyle, Dean Jarvis.
Linfield: Rohan Ferguson; Chris Casement, Joshua Robinson (Charlie Allen 70), Jimmy Callacher, Matthew Clarke; Stephen Fallon, Jamie Mulgrew; Kirk Millar (Daniel Reynolds 78), Bastien Hery, Niall Quinn; Andrew Waterworth (Matthew Shevlin 78).
Subs not used: Gareth Deane (gk), Andrew Mitchell, Ross Larkin, Adam Carroll.
Referee: Stéphanie Frappart (France).
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Well done Dundalk. The best club on this Island this year
The Irish league journos left with huge pie on their face. Only last week they were saying that the “Irish league is improving” and that the LOI need an AIL more than Irish league clubs.
Their all over twitter tonight trying to deflect the result on the chanting from d’dalk fans when the Minnie huns were just as bad.
How do some of them get jobs?
Bitter people
Inaugural??? Hasn’t this been done before? That said, Dundalk play some lovely football.
@Phil Mc Donald: inaugural in this format and sponsorship deal
This is why linfield don’t want an all island league
@Dan2078: They don’t want an all Ireland league because teams on both side of the border will lose places in Europe. If Uefa would keep the current allocation of Irish team then it would be mad not have an AIL.
@Lorcán Coyle: If the best Linfield can do is a 7-1 result result against Dundalk then the Northern League should count their lucky star that they get even one place for Europe as its obvious that their standard is brutal… TBH they don’t deserve any places in Europe as they are that crap
@: While no lover of Linfield it’s ridiculous to judge anything on the back of one game.
Keep in mind that Linfield were within a sniff of getting through to the group stages of the Europa League this season having got through two rounds and making it to the playoffs – beating Qarabag at home only to go out on away goals. This is better than Dundalk managed this season against the same opposition.
I don’t have the stats to hand but my memory is that IL clubs did better in Europe this year that LOI with all clubs progressing through at least one round.
I’m not suggesting that IL is superior to LOI – it’s obvious that isn’t the case – but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
As a Drogheda United supporter this is the lesser of 2 evils winning but its always good seeing Linfield getting destroyed. Happy days.
Embarrassing score line to be brutally honest , well done to Dundalk after a long long season of games . The 50 grand will come in handy .
Linfield are brutally bad
Pub team vs pub team .
@Quentin Tarantino: And what pub team do you play for? They must be some team
@Decko49: I do actually play for a pub team lol. And in fairness we’re holding our own in the league
@Quentin Tarantino: Fair play to ye. Have ye played Dundalk yet? Only joking.
Easy peasy – on the plastic pitch!
I suppose it makes up for not winning The Cup!