Stephen hopes the Boynesiders save best ‘til last

A DRAW against UCD on Friday would be enough to secure a play-off place for Drogheda United, but goalkeeper Stephen McGuinness insists that it’s a win the Boynesiders really want.

The 21-year-old goalkeeper arrived at Markets Field for Saturday’s Limerick game after spending the week as part of the Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad, and now he faces another big occasion at United Park in a game that will make or break the Boynesiders’ pursuit of promotion.

‘It really is getting too close for comfort,’ he said, analysing the state of play in the promotion race following the defeat by the First Division champions.

‘We really only needed a point when we played Cabinteely [in the previous game] and no disrespect to them, the way we were playing we expected to win, but we just couldn’t find the net and it’s turned into a big dogfight when it should have been wrapped up before.

‘There’s a lot of pressure now, but it’s going to be a really, really good game against UCD. They’re going to be attack, attack because a draw mighn’t be enough for them to get into the play-offs, and that might leave space at the back for us to exploit.’

Asked whether Drogheda might be tempted to grind out a draw, McGuinness was adamant that wouldn’t be the case.

‘It would be too risky to play for a draw,’ he said. ‘We’re at home and we’re going to do whatever it takes to win. That’s been the game plan all year and no way would we ever sit back and look for a draw.’

McGuinness looked back on the Limerick game with frustration but also pointed out that the hosts raised their game in front of their biggest crowd of the season.

‘Everyone in our team was really up for the game, but they wanted to put on a show for their ffans, andd ffor ththe firstfit 25 minutesi t we weren’t at the races and were a bit all over the place. It seemed like they had 15 players and everyone was able to find space.

‘But when they had the man sent off it gave us breathing space and it really helped us.’

McGuinness was a central figure in that red card incident as Limerick’s Chris Mulhall claimed he was dragged down by the goalkeeper, only for the referee to show him his second yellow card of the game.

‘I went up to him afterwards and said ‘quit the diving’ because I knew I didn’t touch him - he just jumped over my foot. I’m delighted the referee saw what happened.’

Sadly, the numbers were evened up once more when Sean Brennan got his marching orders immediately after Sean Thornton had hauled Drogheda back into the game.

‘What happened was really bizarre,’ agreed McGuinness. ‘I think, had we kept 11 men on the field we might have got the sesecond goal, and it was a rush of blood to the head and probably abprobably a bit of frustration too from SeSean because we needed the baball. We’ll miss him for the next cocouple of games because he’s bebeen very, very influential for us.

‘What a time for us to lose twtwo games on the trot, the worst popossible time, but we will just hahave to regroup.’

McGuinness is still coming dodown to earth after linking up witwith the Ireland Under-21s last weweek, although in the end he hhad to sit on the bench as Belgium-born Anderlecht player Liam Bossin was picked to the wear the goalkeeper’s jersey for the 3-1 defeat by Serbia at Waterford’s RSC.

‘Mark Kinsella (pictured above left) is one of the coaches for the Under-21s and when he rang to tell me I was in the squad I was surprised but delighted.

‘It was an amazing experience to play with players who are playing at a very high level in England,’ McGuinness concluded.