MARCUS CAVAROLI Dillon insists it’s a level playing field for Drogs
THE bookies might be favouring Finn Harps to make the most of home advantage and end Drogheda United’s promotion ambitions for 2018, but Kealan Dillon for one feels it’s anyone’s game going into this week’s second leg at Finn Park.
Enjoying only his sixth start of the season because Richie Purdy was suffering from illness, Dillon produced what was arguably a man-of-the-match display at United Park and he has every chance of being involved in Ballybofey on Friday.
In the end it was honours even after the first leg, but despite Drogheda scoring first Dillon wasn’t too unhappy at the result and points to the Boynesiders’ first-leg defeat to Shelbourne as evidence that the tie is very much alive.
‘When you’re 1-0 up in a game of such importance like that, there is a little bit of despondency, but I think there’s plenty of positives we can take from that there,’ he began.
‘I thought we played well. I thought we dealt with the long ball well all night - we were caught just the once - and we have every confidence going into the second leg.
‘They wrote us off nearly after the defeat to Shels in the first leg, but we’re in a better position now than we were than this time two weeks ago and we’ll be full of confidence going into the next game and we’ll give it a good crack.
‘Ballybofey is not an easy place to go and they’ve got a lot of results up there, but we’ve gone up there before and done well. We won’t be fearing them going there and we’ll prepare right and be ready to go.’
It was suggested to him that Harps will be favourites going into the second leg, but Dillon responded: ‘I don’t know about that. The league was so tight. Take out UCD, who won it by a couple of points, but ourselves, Finn Harps, Shels and even Longford - the games were so tight and Finn Harps have had three weeks since they last played a game.
‘If anything, we’ve got the momentum. We’ve won our last two games in the league to get into the play-offs, got a massive result against Shels.
‘Now we’re heare we’re not behind. It’s a level playing field going up there and we’d be confident of going up there and turning them over.’
Whether Dillon is involved remains to be seen, but a full 90 minutes should stand to him after having limited game time this season.
‘You have to be ready and take your chances when they come and hopefully I’ve done enough to be in Tim’s plans for this week.
‘You just keep training, make sure you’re as fit as possible, keep greasing the wheels and hope you can take it when you get the chance.
‘There were a few rusty touches there and it’s probably taken a couple of minutes to get into the game and get up to speed. Training is well and good, but it’s nothing compared to playing games.
‘The lads have been doing so well that games can be few and far between. Hopefully Jake is back as soon as possible and it’s unfortunate for the players that got injured this week, but that’s what the squad is for. That’s why we have everyone here and I’ve been putting so much work in training to make sure we don’t feel we’re missing these lads when they’re out.
‘Of course Jake’s the skipper and he’s a massive loss, but hopefully we can get him up into the Premier.’
Speaking of which, Dillon insists he isn’t looking beyond Friday’s game against Finn Harps, and there’s been little mention of the ‘P’ word before now.
‘We won’t be thinking too much about going up yet. Even if we win this week there’s still two massive games against Limerick, home and away, so there’s no real talk of the Premier Division yet. It took long enough to get through against Shels and we’ll be pushing again to get through this week and worry about it afterwards.’