It was a very busy weekend for the DFC Trust as they held their promotion weekend in The Marshes shopping centre from Thursday 6th to Sunday 9th of March.  They received a great reception from passers-by and well-wishers especially on Saturday evening which was set aside as family afternoon with Dundalk FC balloons, keyrings, pens, and plenty of other goodies being handed out.  Undoubtedly the star of the show was the Dundalk FC mascot “Lily the Panda” who came along to lend support to the occasion and meet some young Dundalk fans.  In association with DFC Trust, Dundalk FM held an outside broadcast with their Saturday afternoon sports show coming live from the venue.  John Murphy carried out live interviews with a variety of people from the Club including local players Shane Grimes, Stefan McKevitt and Tiarnan Mulvenna.  Club Promotion Officer Paul Johnston was also on hand to be interviewed and tell how a lot of work and development is currently going on at Oriel Park to continue the great infrastructural improvements that have commenced at the Carrick Road since Gerry Matthews took charge.

Paul was also pleased to announce that the new Club merchandise shop will open in Oriel Park on Thursday of this week before the Dundalk vs. Monaghan game.  The shop will open at 5:00pm and will remain open until after “The Town’s” first home game of the new League campaign.  In addition to the regular range of home and away jerseys, training tops, jackets, caps, hats etc. a whole new range of Dundalk FC products will be available.  Already two newly designed scarves for the 2008 season are proving very popular with fans, as a lot of them were on display at the Shelbourne vs. Dundalk game in Tolka Park last Friday night.  The new range of products available will include Dundalk FC tee shirts for infants, teddy bears, mousemats, mugs, fridge magnets, pencil cases, umbrellas and wine boxes but to name a few.  The shop will open from 5:00pm on all home-game days.   

DFC Trust Chairman Colm Murphy also spoke to John Murphy about the success to date of the Patron Scheme which was launched last year to offer Dundalk fans the opportunity to contribute to the playing budget of the Club.  The scheme has already proved very successful and is part of the reason that John Gill could make a statement that the squad assembled for the 2008 campaign is undoubtedly the best he has had since becoming Manager of “The Lilywhites”.  The DFC Trust want to ensure that the Patron Scheme continues to go from strength to strength and will be further promoting it in the weeks ahead.  New incentives and attractive rewards will be added to the Scheme in the near future to show the continued appreciation the Club has for the vital role Patron Scheme members are playing for the success of Dundalk FC and also to attract new members.