Kill-er blow as Brennan injury sours superb start

DROGHEDA United are reelinging from the news that star signing - Killian Brennan (right) could miss half the league campaign after suffering a suspected broken collarbone against Galway on Friday evening.

The 33-year-old midfielder was forced off just a minute before half-time after falling awkwardly in a challenge involving Padraic Cunningham, and first estimates are that the Rathmullen native will be outut of action for three months.

The injury marred Drogheda’seda’s opening-night victory and Peteete Mahon’s men start life withoutout their most experienced player this Friday as St Patrick’s Athletic visit United Park in round two (kick-off 7.45pm).

On the plus side, Marc Griffin is available again after recovering from a hamstring strain, as is Killian’s brother Sean Brennan who wasn’t considered last week as he had just returned from honeymoon.

The manager agreed that it was a major blow to lose Killian, but the Boynesiders do have plenty of options to fill the anchor role in midfield, with Mahon facing a choice between Sean Brennan, Sean Thornton and Ryan McEvoy.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Mahon said: ‘Killian was our acting captain and he is a huge loss. He’s a big influence on the training ground and the dressing-room as well, in a positive way.

‘I’m waiting on the doctor to ring me because Killian went back to see the surgeon yesterday.

‘It appears that his collarbone is broken and it’s a question of whether you let it heal naturally or undergo surgery. We have very good medical people here and Killian will get all the help he needs, but I’m sorry for him because he was really getting into it.’

The Drogheda boss agreed that a second consecutive win at the start of the season would represent a dream start for the promoted club, but warned his team would have nothing ease against St Pat’s despite their opening-night 2-1 home defeat by Bray Wanderers.

‘I wouldn’t read too much into their first game - those things can happen,’ he said. ‘They would be one of the favourites to be up there with the size of the squad they have, the players and the finances.

‘They were inconsistent towards the end of last season after they won the League Cup, but tthey have players like Christy FaFagan who will cause problemproblems for us and we will have to be very, very vigilant.

‘WWe have to start the gamgame better than last weweek. Galway’s first goal cacame from one of our pplayers falling asleep at a set piece and that’s not acceptable with this levele of football, so we’ll hhave to work at that in trtraining the best we can anand defend a little bit betbetter.

‘PPlease God we get three points because it would bbe brilliant to have two wins from two, but I also like to be on the side of caution. The last time wwe were in the Premier DiDivisionii we got two good wins at the start of the season, and if memory serves me correctly we were still relegated.

‘But I do think this team we have now are far more capable of being able to stay in the Premier Division.’

In terms of picking his team, Mahon still has a couple of selection dilemmas ahead of Friday’s match, apart from filling Killian Brennan’s shoes.

‘I will have a look at the Pat’s match [video] tomorrow night and take a few notes and talk with John [Gill] and Mark [Kinsella] before I pick the team, but there are seven games in March and we’ll do a fair bit of rotation to give everybody the necessary rest because it’s going to be a long, hard season.’

Looking back at Friday night’s game in Galway, Mahon admitted Drogheda were fortunate not to concede before substitutes Gareth McCaffrey and Thomas Byrne combined for the late match-winner.

‘I thought we were lucky to come in 0-0 at half-time, but in the second half we played better. We were forced into taking off Killian at half-time, and then I brought on the other two lads in the second half and Gareth got a fantastic goal from a great pass by Thomas.

‘When they [substitutions] come off, it’s great, and it was a very important win, although we won’t know how important until the end of the season.’