Gallagher goal sends Drogs on their way

AT half-time on Friday night a quick check of a popular football scores website showed that in the world there were only five competitive games of note taking place.

Drogheda and Waterford was the only one to be scoreless at the time.

While the meagre few in attendance were treated to rather poor fare and those who opted for the European quarter-final may have seen Wales put in a scintillating performance, ultimately though both Drogheda and Wales secured a win.

And in football, results are that matters.

The clash between the key fixture and the Bellewstown races along with an intriguing European qualifier saw one of the lowest attendances of the season.

With a series of games played on Saturday, possibly this should have been pushed back to Saturday afternoon.

But as it was, Friday at 7:45pm remained as the kick-off, however all bar a few flashes, Drogheda didn’t really start playing until a controversial in-direct free-kick inside Waterford’s box lead to Luke Gallagher’s first ever League of Ireland goal and gave the Boynesiders the lead.

From then on they never looked like letting the game slip and Aaron Ashe added to his tally this season with a fantastic drive on 88 minutes to seal all three points and give the right response to the UCD defeat.

Pete Mahon made two changes to the side who were beaten by The Students, both forced, as Aaron Molloy and Joe Jackson have departed the club. In came Jake Hyland and Sean Brennan.

There were early worries for Drogheda as Lloyd Buckley took a heavy knock and was forced off for several minutes while receiving treatment.

The visitors fired the first shot in anger on 14 minutes when Sean Byrne (92) fizzed an effort over from 30 yards out.

Drogheda were presented with two quickfire chances when Marc Griffin intercepted two loose passes but failed to take advantage of the possession.

A litany of errors punctuated the latter stages of the first-half but Sam O’Connor almost broke the deadlock on 35 minutes when Griffin again cut into the box and pulled the ball back for the lone striker to narrowly drag his shot wide.

One of those flashes of fluid football came with eight minutes left in the half, Buckley delivered a visiously curling ball into the box which Sean Thornton attacked only to see his goal bound header smack back off the crossbar and just evade the onrushing O’Connor.

With the last action of the half The Blues should have been in front as the Drogheda defence was opened only for Philip Gorman to take the ball off the highly rated Owen Wall and strike a poor shot at Stephen McGuinness.

A Stephen Dunne mistake just after the re-start almost gifted Waterford a chance on goal but the defender recovered well to clear behind for just the concession of a corner.

Waterford’s James O’Brien was lucky to remain on the pitch, having already picked up a yellow card he pulled down Sean Brennan but was saved by Rob Hennessy’s decision to play advantage.

Byrne (92) danced through the Drogheda defence but Derek Doyle was back to make a sublime tackle and allow the hosts to clear.

Doyle went box-to-box and unfortunately a mix-up between him and O’Connor cost Drogheda a possible goal. Drogheda were getting great purchase down the wings as they looked to release O’Connor.

With 20 minutes remaining a Griffin delivery deflected off Gorman and bounced into the path of Sean Brennan who broke into the box.

Dave O’Leary cut across with what appeared to be a fantastic goal saving tackle but when Kevin Burns handled the ball referee Hennessy chose to award Drogheda an in-direct free-kick.

Brennan rolled the ball to Thornton who powered a low shot which bounced up to Gallagher at the back post and he powered his header through a sea of bodies beating Burns at his near post.

Drogheda almost doubled their lead four minutes later when sub Adam Wixted released Aaron Ashe and he smashed a shot off the crossbar, Drogheda continuing to pile on the pressure.

Waterford’s best chance of an equaliser came with 11 minutes remaining when substitute Roy Butler headed just over from an in-swinging corner.

All three points were wrapped up with two minutes remaining when again Brennan was involved in the move which lead to Ashe powering a low shot into the far corner from just outside the box. Results elsewhere conspired to see Drogheda return to second in the table.