Points all that matter after poor Athlone fare
HISTORY was repeating itself in the midlands last Friday evening when Drogheda United stumbled to a narrow victory over league whipping boys Athlone Town.
The Boynesiders performed below par and were lucky not to concede an embarrassing equaliser deep into stoppage time, but sometimes you just have to take the points and move on.
That was also the case in September 2016, Drogheda’s last visit to this venue, when they were also very unconvincing 1-0 winners, but the three points earned that day were vital nonetheless and they went on to make the play-offs and eventually gain promotion back to the Premier Division.
Tim Clancy’s team had trounced Athlone 6-0 on the opening day of this season but weren’t expecting such an easy ride this time as their hosts had a new manager in Terry Butler following Aaron Callaghan’s recent resignation.
Even when Callaghan was in charge Athlone were pretty competitive on their own patch and gained their only point to date against high-flying Finn Harps, but still Drogheda supporters in one of the smallest league crowds ever would have been expecting a good number of goals.
The pitches in Wexford and Cobh earlier in the season were similarly bobbly, yet the Drogs managed to score a total of 13 in those two games.
Last Friday, though, there didn’t seem to be the same hunger, nor did the starting XI appear to adapt well to the new 4-1-3-2 formation trialled by Clancy.
Luke Gallagher came into the team to play in front of the back four, with Lee Duffy dropping to the bench, but the ploy didn’t seem to work, certainly in the first half when Drogheda were poor.
That said, they did create two early openings. Great work by Conor Kane to get past Josh Hogan was followed by a pass inside to Chris Lyons who sliced his shot badly wide.
Then on 15 minutes Sean Brennan back-heeled a quickly taken Jake Hyland throw into the path of the on-rushing Mark Doyle who drove an angled shot across the face of goal.
For the next 20 minutes, though, the Boynesiders simply didn’t perform. Their decision-making was poor and their passing careless at times, and you could sense Athlone’s confidence building as the half wore on.
Winger Tzee Mustapha cut inside and had a shot blocked by Ciaran Kelly after a mazy run from midfield, and their lone striker Shane Stokes was then left in splendid isolation to take a Felix Bape Perez pass in his stride before slicing a disappointing shot well wide.
The nearest Drogheda came to a goal in the first half was in the 38th minute when Brennan had his heels clipped by Aaron Brilly and his curling 30-yard free grazed the upright.
However, Clancy’s half-time team talk made some impact, for the away side were a bit brighter on the restart.
Gallagher’s first foray into opposition territory made an impact as he released the onrushing Colm Deasy whose cross was sliced inches wide by Bashmil Nyakambili in attempting to clear.
And it was the same combination that created the decisive goal on the 50-minute mark. This time Deasy ran onto Gallagher’s pass and delivered a deep cross and Hyland nodded it back into the heart of the penalty area.
Lyons took a couple of touches to get the ball under control and despite the close proximity of a defender managed to turn and rifle a shot past 17-year-old debutant goalkeeper Darcy Lawless.
Drogheda should have been able to push on from there, but despite dominating in the possession stakes they weren’t too convincing around the Athlone penalty area and sloppy passing continued to be a feature of their play.
Gallagher pulled a long-range shot well wide and Nyakambili again threatened to score past his own goalkeeper who had to backtrack and tip the ball over after a good Drogheda move involving Kelly, Doyle and Kane.
Kane then intercepted the Athlone keeper’s throw-out and released Doyle whose cross was headed wide by Hyland, under pressure from home defender Ian Fletcher.
An instinctive drive from Brennan, latching onto Kane’s throw, almost sneaked inside Lawless’ right-hand post as the clock ticked past 71 minutes, and Deasy then pulled a shot wide from 18 yards.
Duffy made an appearance off the bench and set up Drogheda’s final chance for Doyle who ballooned the ball high over the bar.
Brennan seemed unfortunate to be yellow-carded after going down too easily for referee Lynch’s liking following a Ger Smith challenge.
With almost the last kick of the game, though, the Boynesiders almost conceded what would have been a disastrous equaliser.
Former Drogheda United Under-19s striker Ollie Hamzat, who had come on in the second half for Athlone and caused problems for the home defence with his physicality, slipped the ball into the path of fellow sub Darren Kavanagh who bore down on goal with only Paul Skinner to beat.
Kavanagh looked odds-on to score but instead sent a diagonal shot whizzing a yard wide of Skinner’s right-hand post.
The resulting goal kick was the last action of the game and Drogheda had escaped with a win.
It certainly wasn’t pretty, but in fairness Athlone were well organised in defence and certainly didn’t give the impression of a team that had leaked 42 goals in their opening 10 matches.
Perhaps the change in management will improve the midlanders’ fortunes and Drogheda will be hoping Butler’s charges can take a few points off the other top teams in the weeks ahead.