Dundalk's Late Collapse: McElroy's Equalizer Stuns in Stoppage Time
Gareth McElroy’s boot stole a point and rewrote the mood of a season in the space of a heartbeat.
Deep into stoppage time at Oriel Park, with Dundalk already tasting the relief of a long‑awaited win, Sligo Rovers’ defender reacted quickest in a crowded box, toe‑poking home after Enda Minogue failed to claim a high cross. One swing, one mistake punished, and a game that had seemed settled was ripped away from the hosts yet again.
For Darren Purse, it felt like oxygen. For Dundalk, it was a familiar punch to the gut.
Horgan’s milestone, Dundalk’s old problem
Ciarán Kilduff’s side had done almost everything right for 90 minutes. They controlled the tempo, carved out chances, and finally saw their captain deliver the moment the night seemed built for.
On 52 minutes, Trevor Clarke drove at Sligo and slipped Cian Dillon into space. The pass ran beyond Harry Groome, but the midfielder recovered smartly, recycling possession to Daryl Horgan on the edge of the box. The skipper took charge. One touch, then a thumping finish high into the net for the 100th goal of his club career and his 60th in Dundalk colours.
Oriel Park rose for him. It should have been the platform for a routine win.
The pattern up to that point had screamed home victory. From the opening whistle, Sam Sargeant had been the busier of the two goalkeepers. Inside 17 minutes he had already dealt with efforts from Ronan Teahan, Horgan and Dillon, all without too much fuss but all underlining Dundalk’s early control.
Sligo, by contrast, barely laid a glove on Minogue before the break. Their only effort of note in the first half came on 19 minutes when Luke Pearce climbed to meet Jack Shorrock’s cross from the left, only to direct a tame header straight at the Dundalk keeper.
The hosts then turned the screw. Clarke rattled the crossbar with a fierce strike from just outside the area on 20 minutes. Bobby Burns lashed over when unmarked at the edge of the box. Clarke then found himself alone eight yards out from a Horgan corner, the left side of the goal yawning, but dragged his header wide. The pressure built, the breakthrough refused to come.
Sligo hang on, then hit back
Sligo’s threat after the interval arrived in flashes rather than waves. Early in the second half, Shorrock got in behind Mayowa Animasahun and forced Minogue to tip over. From the resulting corner, McElroy glanced a header just wide. They were half‑chances, but they carried a warning: this Sligo side would not simply fold.
Still, once Horgan struck, Dundalk looked in command. Teahan dictated, Clarke and Groome buzzed around the pockets, and the Lilywhites hunted the second goal that would have killed the contest.
Sargeant refused to let them have it. He produced a brilliant point‑blank stop to deny Dillon after Horgan had knocked the ball down in the box, a save that kept Sligo alive when the game threatened to run away from them. Horgan then saw a free-kick deflect just wide on 78 minutes. Four minutes from time, Teahan unleashed a ferocious drive that seemed destined for the corner until Sargeant clawed it around the post.
Those interventions framed what came next. Dundalk had the chances to close it out. They didn’t. And a team that has forgotten how to see games through paid the price again.
Minogue’s misjudgment, McElroy’s moment
Sligo, who had been stung by a late concession against Drogheda United just six days earlier, flipped that script in added time.
In the first minute of stoppage time, a hopeful cross turned into a calamity. Minogue came to claim but never got there. The ball spilled loose, Trey George snapped at the chance and got a shot away. It ricocheted into the path of McElroy, who reacted instinctively, stretching to stab the ball home.
No finesse, no time to think. Just a defender gambling and winning.
The equaliser made it two points from two games for Purse, both earned the hard way, and dragged Sligo off the canvas on a night when they had spent long spells pinned back. They remain bottom of the table on goal difference, but this felt bigger than a single point. It was evidence of character, of a team willing to hang in and punish any slip.
With a trip to Derry City looming, that matters.
Dundalk’s recurring nightmare
For Dundalk, the numbers are damning. This was the fifth straight match in which they have led and failed to win. Across the season, they have now dropped 26 points from winning positions – four more than Sligo have collected in total.
The pattern is no longer an oddity; it is a defining trait. They dominate, they strike first, and then they leave the door ajar. On nights like this, someone walks through it.
Horgan’s landmark goal deserved a different ending. The performance, for long stretches, did too. But until Dundalk learn how to close games, late goals like McElroy’s will keep rewriting their story – and not in the way they want as the season tightens around them.
