‘A great result but it should have been three points’

AARON Ashe went through a roller-coaster of emotions at Markets Field on Saturday evening as his 89th-minute goal looked like being the match-winner - only for the man he was marking to pop up with a stoppage-time equaliser for Limerick.

The 20-year-old collapsed to the turf at the final whistle, devastated that Drogheda had been unable to hang on, and there was some despondency in the dressing-room also, but also pride that they’d brought an end to their full-time opponents’ unblemished league record.

‘You have got to be disappointed coming here to Limerick who were unbeaten after 12 games and for myself to take the lead with five minutes to go. To concede again then was tough for the lads and tough for myself,’ Ashe began.

‘Overall it was a good point and we have to take the positives but also look at the fact we should have won the game, go back to the drawing board and think about where we can improve after the break.’

Ashe felt there was little he could have done to prevent Ross Mann, only on the field a few moments, tying the scores in the final moments.

‘Your man was actually in front of me, the substitute, and he got his foot up nearly around my neck and just got a toe on it. I was devastated, but I don’t think I even had enough energy to lift my legs at that stage.

‘We were absolutely spent, the whole lot of us. All the lads left everything on the pitch and we all really had to dig deep and we were unlucky at the end, but it was a great result and I’m really proud.

‘To come away with a draw and stop their 13 wins from 13 is a feat in itself, but the next time the fixture comes around we want to improve on that and the way we can improve on it is by going and beating them.

‘The first time we met them up in United Park, they beat us. This time we should have beat them. Next time around it’s our job to go and take the game to them and get the three points.’

Ashe had no complaints about the intense heat that prevailed and indeed expressed a preference for such weather.

‘That’s the summer football we have in Ireland,’ he pointed out, ‘ so we have to be able to play in these conditions. For myself and a lot of the lads, we’d rather play in the heat and sun than rain, hail and snow. Don’t get me wrong, it is hard to adapt, but the officials gave us enough time to get sufficient amount of water on board.

‘The recovery for us now over this little break that we have is going to be really important for how strong we come back after the break.

‘In this round we’ve managed to get 17 points so far, so can we take more than that the next time?’

Going into the summer break, Ashe stands as the club’s joint top scorer with four goals and is happy with his lot.

‘It’s great to get among the goals, but the club is good and the atmosphere around the place is good and it’s always easier to play and enjoy your football in a club like that.

‘For me the overall goal is always getting the win for the team which we were unfortunate to miss out on today.

‘Chasing down Limerick is always going to be tough, but we want to stay in second place and it was vital after the Cabinteely result that we didn’t come away empty-handed.

‘Pete was right to be unhappy last week. None of the lads were. If you’d been inside the dressing-room, everybody was really, really down. The game today, the way we were able to carry ourselves and the work ethic that we put in, it just wasn’t there last week.

‘Maybe after the bounce of the cup run we had up in Derry, it was still in the back of the lads’ heads, so it was great to bounce back and put in a good performance the way we did.’