LAST UPDATE | 21 Aug 2020

STEPHEN KENNY’S TIME at Dundalk is filled with memorable moments.

The Irish coach won a remarkable four league titles and two FAI Cup triumphs during a six-year spell with the Lilywhites, taking them from a team struggling badly towards the bottom end of the table to the dominant Irish side of the era.

Arguably the best night of all saw them pick up a stunning 3-1 aggregate victory over BATE Borisov, a win that provided a serious cash injection to a team that only a few years previously looked in danger of a complete collapse.

The BATE victory sent the Lilywhites into the Champions League play-off round and more significantly as it turned out, guaranteed them a spot in the Europa League group stages at worst.

In the latest episode of ‘Rise of Kenny,’ host Kevin Brannigan chats to Dan McDonnell of The Irish Independent and focuses on the manager’s Dundalk spell, with one of the topics naturally being that memorable night at Tallaght Stadium.

Having been fortunate to escape the away leg with a 1-0 loss and been knocked out of the competition by the same opposition the previous year, not many people were tipping Kenny’s side to prevail when the teams met in Dublin, but they upset the odds to earn a result that — as McDonnell as explains — had significant ramifications for years to come.

“They play in Tallaght this time, not Oriel Park, which I think is important. I don’t think they got the same flow in Oriel Park as they got in Tallaght.

“They bring BATE to Tallaght in the second round game and it’s just one of these nights where BATE just weren’t at it, Dundalk were, and they win 3-0.

“The third goal comes in the rain and it’s not just that they win 3-0, they win well. It’s a masterclass of everything. They defend their set pieces very well, because BATE represented a threat from that. They got one goal before half-time, one goal after half-time. They were in a situation where one away goal from BATE puts them through [even if Dundalk score two].

“It wasn’t free-flowing stuff all the time, they were streetwise. If BATE win a free kick, the player stands in front of it. If they need to go down sometimes and waste some time, they waste some time. They do everything they need to do to professionally win a game.

“And they eventually get the break, because BATE are mentally shot because they’re under mad pressure. They’re gone. Dundalk break away, get a goal on the counter in the end, Robbie Benson, and that’s it.

And this is a goal that probably changes the history of Irish football in the subsequent years. I think if Dundalk don’t win that game, Stephen Kenny doesn’t become Ireland manager. If Dundalk don’t win that game, they don’t get the money and the six million quid that eventually ends up being the money that the FAI hold onto for a while, that leads to a domino effect of developments in the early months of 2017, which leads to the John Delaney €100,000 arises in a long-winded way. 

“Money from Uefa, people may not be aware, it goes to the FAI and it goes to the club. The FAI are the intermediary for it. Dundalk said to the FAI: ‘We’re in no rush to get this massive amount of money that we received. We’ll take it off you when we need it.’ And in the early months of 2017, they decide to relay the pitch at Oriel Park. There’s an email sent to the FAI to say: ‘We actually need that money now. Can you release some money to us?’ They do that and that is all linked to the collapse of the FAI.

“So if Dundalk don’t beat BATE Borisov that night, a lot of things maybe don’t happen. It’s not that much of a stretch — Stephen Kenny wouldn’t have got the [Irish] job, Dundalk wouldn’t have got that money and maybe things wouldn’t have come out the way they did.”

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