One of fourteen players in this season’s squad to have previously won promotion from the First Division, Robbie Farrell has been hired by Dundalk to this year assist in accomplishing a mission which has proved impossible over the past six seasons. Not since 2002 has the island’s largest sleeping giant tasted top flight football, however, John Gill’s assembled army containing a mix of youth and experience, combined with a winning hunger, means 2008 could well end the long exile.
 
Farrell has been employed to lead the front line, with the striker’s CV reading 73 league goals scored in just over 200 appearances in League of Ireland football. Technically, Dundalk is only the fourth club Robbie has played for since starting out with Home Farm all those years ago. He began his career at Whitehall back in 1997 and spent four straight seasons in the senior set-up, at a club where he had worked his way up through the ranks. “I played my schoolboy football with Home Farm and then progressed up through the reserves,” the 30-year-old explains. “I made my debut I think when I was 19, under Dermot Keely in the Premier. I played a few games towards the end of the season that year, and stayed there for another few seasons before I moved on to Longford. I enjoyed my time at Home Farm, but Longford got promoted that year; it was a chance to go back and play in the Premier, so I took that opportunity. The couple of times I played against Longford that year when I was with Home Farm, I scored a few goals - I think I got 17 goals that season in the First Division - so Stephen Kenny got on to me then in the close-season and I decided to go down there and give it a go.”
 
That move to the midlands came in the early part of the Stephen Kenny revolution at Flancare Park, although it was a transfer which didn’t go to plan as Farrell returned to Dublin City - formerly Home Farm - just a year later. “I had signed a two-year contract down there, but chances were limited. We had a good cup run and got to the final that year, but I didn’t play as much as I would have liked to there. Then the chance came to be released, so I went to Dublin City. That was the first year that they had got together - Johnny McDonnell was manager. We should have won the league that year, but Drogheda ended up winning it and going up.”
 
Despite that, the striker remained at the club for the following season as they finished a disappointing seventh, however, upon the arrival of John Gill as manager in 2003, fortunes changed. In Gill’s first season in charge, the Vikings captured the First Division crown and the prize of promotion that went with it, a feat which Farrell admits was a pleasant surprise. “It was, because John came in and cleared out a lot of lads that were there from the previous year, and brought in a lot of new lads that he knew from junior football. Expectations weren’t too high from outside the club, but we knew what we had was a decent squad and a hard-working squad. Obviously things went well for us that year and we ended up winning the league.”
 
That was to be the end of the highs, however, as Gill departed in mid-season in 2004, leaving Roddy Collins to enter the hotseat. “Things didn’t go too well in the Premier then,” Robbie admits. “It was a big step-up. There were a lot of the teams, as they are now, full-time. We got off to a bad start, so we were up against it from there on. Roddy came in and put about fourteen of us on the transfer list. I was all set to go - I had agreed terms with Newry - but then we played a game down in Cork, I was on the bench, he brought me on at half-time and I scored, and we ended up winning 1-0. After the game, he came over to me and said ‘you’re not going anywhere, you’re staying’, so I ended up staying for the rest of the season and scored another couple of goals.”
 
An 18-month spell spent between Newry City and Glenavon in the Irish League was to follow for the Dubliner, before he returned to the League of Ireland when joining Monaghan in July 2006. “I joined Newry in their transfer window,” he explains, “they were halfway through their season. I enjoyed my time up there, and had more or less agreed to sign for the following year, but something came about and that deal fell through, so I actually signed for Glenavon about a week before the transfer deadline the following August. I was there for a few months, but I got an injury in my knee and had to have a cartilage operation, so I didn’t get a good run of it up there. I ended up going back to Newry then the following January. There was a change of management there, but I was still only regaining my fitness at that time, so at the end of that season then, I decided to go to Monaghan.
 
“Mick Cooke got in touch after the Northern season had finished, and I signed for them in July. I was happy to come back, I was only after getting fit at that stage, so I just wanted to get back in and start playing games again, and Mick gave me the opportunity to do that. They’re a great club, they have great people behind the scenes - the chairman and everyone there are great people. They struggle a bit with support, which is a pity, because the set-up there is good. If they could get more people in behind the club, it could move them on a good bit, but it’s a big Gaelic county. It’s just a shame, because there’s great people up there at the club.”
 
As ever with this evening’s fixture, Dundalk get nothing easy from their near neighbours, who appear to play their best football of the year against the Lilywhites. However, Farrell insists that during his time at Monaghan, manager Mick Cooke never prepared for a game with Dundalk any differently to any other opposition. “He’s no different, I don’t think,” Robbie says. “Mick treats every game the same - every game you want to win, no matter who you’re playing against. When I was there, we had a couple of good results against Dundalk, but any time you play any of the bigger clubs at the top of the division, no matter who you’re playing for, you automatically raise your game. We’ll find it ourselves this season when we’re playing against teams that are maybe struggling a bit in the league. They’re always looking to get a scalp against a big club - that’s just natural in football. I didn’t think Mick treated the games with Dundalk any differently - he treated them all the same.”
 
Indeed, had Gill not approached Farrell in the close-season, the forward would still be on the books at Monaghan. An offer was on the table for the striker - who finished as the division’s third highest scorer with 12 goals last term - however, he admits that the lure of Dundalk was too difficult to resist. “I enjoyed my season and a half at Monaghan. I got a few goals and I was enjoying my football. Mick wanted me to stay on, but when John contacted me, it was a no-brainer; there wasn’t any decision to be made in my eyes. It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. I was delighted with the opportunity to come to a massive club like this. Dundalk is one of the biggest clubs in the country. I worked with John for a couple of years at Dublin City, so I know how he works. Everything is thorough and everything is one hundred percent professional, so he was a big factor in me coming here. Gerry Scully was too, because I worked with him before as well - his coaching is top class. So, they were two big factors in me signing.”
 
Having won this division five years ago, Farrell knows how hard it is to achieve promotion. However, despite conceding that it will be a tough season ahead, he is confident about the Lilywhites’ chances of a successful title challenge. “It’s a tough division,” he admits, “because there’s not an awful lot in it between all the clubs that are up there. This year is going to be a tough year with just one going up - it always is a tough league to get out of, but I think, with the players John has signed, that we have a great opportunity to win the league and to get out of this division. I wouldn’t have come to the club unless I thought we were going to win something. It’s important for this club to be in the Premier, where it should be and where it belongs.”