Promotion battle on a knife edge

THE First Division Play-Off Final is on a knifeedge going into Friday’s second leg against Finn Harps and penalty kick practice will form part of Drogheda United’s preparations for the game in Ballybofey (kick-off 7.45pm).

With the tie delicately poised at 1-1 following last week’s game at United Park and all three previous meetings this season being decided by a single goal, there has to be a fair chance that a shootout will decide who plays Limerick in the Promotion/Relegation decider.

And having beaten Shelbourne in similar fashion last week, spot kicks should hold no fears for Drogheda if the second leg ends in a draw after extra time.

Speaking on Monday afternoon, Clancy expressed the hope that the tie would be settled without the need for penalties but acknowledged that the experience of taking them in a pressure situation might work in his team’s favour.

‘We tackled them [penalties] before the second leg of the Shelbourne game and we’ll take some again this week,’ the manager responded when asked if penalties would form part of the squad’s preparations.

‘The guys who took them in Tolka Park showed bottle, coolness and good technique, and hopefully it doesn’t go that far this time, but if it does I’m sure the lads will be ready.’

Drogheda are anxiously awaiting the release of the suspensions list for Friday, with Clancy believing that Chris Lyons will have to serve a one-match suspension for accumulating five yellow cards, and that could see Gareth McCaffrey being brought into the starting line-up.

Jake Hyland, of course, is ruled out after breaking his leg at Tolka Park last week, but Richie Purdy was due to return to training last night (Monday) after missing the first leg with a bout of tonsillitis and Lee Duffy could yet play a part this season after a long spell out through injury.

‘It’s probably a bit too soon for Lee on Friday, but if we can get a bit of fitness into him he gives us an option for the bench,’ the manager reported.

‘Losing Chris would be a big blow because he’s been a big part of our success, but hopefully whoever comes in can produce the goods.’

Looking back at the first leg, the 1-1 result could be viewed as slightly disappointing because Drogheda scored first and the goal they conceded was very soft and came at a time when the Boynesiders were on top.

‘I would go along with that,’ said Clancy when it was put to him that the Drogs possibly had a slight edge over the 90 minutes.

‘Performance wise we were a lot happier

We were quite positive on Friday, without really, really opening them up, although we had a good few halfchances

than for the two Shelbourne games and we tried to play a bit more football.

‘But all the games against Shels were very tight, not great games, and against Finn Harps this year we’ve played quite well, even in the games we lost.

‘We were quite positive on Friday, without really, really opening them up, although we had a good few half-chances.

‘In the second half Harps had a good spell and the goal we conceded was disappointing from our point of view. It was just a big clearance from their keeper and Nathan Boyle took a great touch and after that it took a couple of deflections before he scored.

‘Nine times out of 10 that ball just goes through to the keeper, but you can’t be over-critical. We just mentioned it [at training] on Saturday, that [long] balls like that can’t be killing us.’

The bookies will have Harps as favourites to go through, on the basis of having home advantage, but Drogheda proved last week that they can pull off a result away from home when required.

‘We are in a better position than after the first Shelbourne game when we were one goal behind,’ he pointed out.

‘Harps have home advantage now, but if we can get a good start to the game and keep the home fans quiet, the longer the game goes on the more the momentum swings in our favour and it gets nervy for them.

‘If we can score it cranks the pressure up more, but we know it’s going to be tough. Harps finished three points behind UCD and Ballybofey is a difficult place to go to.

‘We certainly won’t be going gung-ho from the start. It’ll be like a normal game where we try to stay in it for as long as we can.

‘Harps were big favourites at the start to go and beat us over the two legs, so there’s less pressure on us.’