Derby win sees Town move up

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ROBBIE Horgan’s Drogheda Town defeated neighbours Parkvilla in one of his first games in charge back in January - and the Marian Park men repeated the trick last Friday night in Claremont Stadium.

A win for the Navan side would have catapulted them to joint top in the Major Division standings, but instead it’s Town who made ground up the table following their first victory of the current campaign.

There was little action of note in the opening 25 minutes as the respective defences bossed the exchanges, and even in the latter stages of the first half scoring opportunities were at a premium.

It was no surprise, then, when the sides went into the break still on level terms.

However, it didn’t take long for Town to up their game on the restart and crucially they got their noses in front on 55 minutes.

Keith Boyle and Sean Callaghan combined to work the opening and the ball was then moved on to Emmanuel Santos who duly shot home via the upright.

Thereafter the away defence kept their concentration as Parkvilla pushed unsuccessfully for an equaliser, before Town broke out to net a decisive second goal in the 88th minute.

The ball was cleared out quickly to Boyle when a Parkvilla attack broke down and the number 9 advanced into the opposition half before spotting the home keeper off his line. Then, from some 45 yards out, Boyle hit a fantastic chipped shot at pace that beat the Parkvilla keeper all ends up and finished in the back of the net.

Reflecting on the victory, Horgan said: ‘I think this result was coming.

‘I’m happy with the two goals but more impressed by the way we kept a clean sheet after the problems we’ve had defending.

‘Our regular keeper wasn’t available, so we brought in Vinny O’Hare from the Under-19s and he did really well on the night.’

Drogheda Town are back in action this Friday when they travel to Clondalkin Celtic for an 8pm kick-off at Greenogue.