Dundalk Stumbles Again as Sligo Rovers Snatch Late Equalizer
Gareth McElroy stabbed the ball over the line in stoppage time to rip up Dundalk’s script and hand Sligo Rovers a precious point at Oriel Park.
What should have been a routine home win turned, once again, into a cautionary tale for a Dundalk side that cannot hold what it has.
Horgan hits a milestone, Dundalk lose their grip
For Ciarán Kilduff and his players, this one hurt. They had controlled the night, led again, and still walked away with two points missing from their pockets.
Captain Daryl Horgan looked to have settled it early in the second half. On 52 minutes, Trevor Clarke slid Cian Dillon into space, his ball skidding across the area and breaking kindly. Harry Groome couldn’t quite gather it, but had the awareness to roll it back into Horgan’s path. The skipper did the rest, thundering a finish high into the net for the 100th goal of his club career and his 60th in a Dundalk shirt.
It was the moment the game had been leaning towards from the opening whistle.
Dundalk had Sligo penned in from the start. Sam Sargeant was busy early, getting behind efforts from Ronan Teahan, Horgan and Dillon inside the first 17 minutes. The pattern was clear: white shirts on the front foot, red ones hanging on.
Sligo’s only first-half offering came on 19 minutes when Luke Pearce rose to meet a teasing cross from new signing Jack Shorrock, but his header lacked conviction and Enda Minogue gathered comfortably.
The hosts were inches from the lead a minute later. Clarke stepped in off the left and unleashed a fierce drive from just outside the box that crashed off the crossbar with Sargeant beaten. Bobby Burns then blazed over when unmarked at the edge of the area, before Clarke again found himself free eight yards out from a Horgan corner and somehow failed to hit the target with half the goal yawning.
Dundalk were dominant. They just didn’t kill.
Sligo live dangerously, then punish late
Darren Purse’s Sligo have been here before. Six days earlier they conceded late against Drogheda United. This time, they flipped the script.
The visitors almost stole a march four minutes after the restart when Shorrock darted in behind Mayowa Animasahun and forced Minogue to tip over. From the resulting corner, McElroy glanced a header just wide. It was a warning that, for all Dundalk’s control, the game remained alive.
Then the pressure finally told at the other end with Horgan’s milestone strike. At 1-0, with Oriel Park settling into a familiar groove, Dundalk chased the second that would have ended it.
Shorrock’s deep free-kick needed tipping over by Minogue, but most of the traffic still ran towards Sargeant. The Sligo goalkeeper produced a superb point-blank stop to deny Dillon from a Horgan knockdown, a save that would grow in importance with every passing minute.
Horgan saw a free kick deflect just wide on 78 minutes. Teahan, excellent throughout, drove a ferocious effort towards the top corner four minutes from time, only for Sargeant to claw it away. Dundalk were pushing, probing, and seemingly closing in on the line.
Then they unravelled.
Another lead lost
In the first minute of stoppage time, Minogue made the decision that changed the night. He came for a high cross he never truly looked like claiming. The ball spilled, chaos followed, and Trey George pounced to get a shot away. It ricocheted kindly into the path of McElroy, who reacted quickest to toe-poke home.
Sligo’s bench exploded. Purse, just two games into the job, suddenly had two points from two matches and a dressing room with something to cling to. His side remain bottom of the table on goal difference, but the mood music shifts slightly as they prepare for a daunting trip to Derry City. They have proof now that they can hang in, suffer, and still leave with something.
For Dundalk, it was a familiar, bitter taste. This was the fifth consecutive game in which they had led and failed to win. The tally of points dropped from winning positions this season now stands at 26 – four more than Sligo have collected in total.
The numbers are damning. The manner of this one, even more so.
A team that once made a habit of strangling games now repeatedly lets them breathe. The question for Kilduff is no longer whether Dundalk can get ahead. It’s whether they can be trusted to stay there when it matters most.
