Brennan injury not as bad as first feared
FEARS that Drogheda United’s Sean Brennan had suffered a serious injury against Finn Harps last Saturday have proved unfounded and the skipper looks set to return to training this week.
Brennan was the victim of a late tackle from Mark Coyle during the pre-season friendly, which Harps won 1-0 thanks to a contentious penalty, but Drogheda manager Tim Clancy said he had no complaints with the Donegal side’s uncompromising approach to the game which resulted in a 21-5 foul count and three bookings for Harps players.
‘Even when I was a player you always knew that Harps were going to be a physical team,’ said Clancy, speaking on Monday afternoon.
‘It’s only a pre-season game, but if that’s how Harps are going to play in the Premier Division I can understand Ollie Horgan wanting them to play like that in the friendlies. He has a huge task with them in the Premier and they have to be competitive for them to do well.
‘I don’t think any of the tackles were that nasty, so I can’t complain too much.
‘With Sean we think it’s only a knock into the side of his leg where it’s caught a nerve. He was in a lot of pain, but there’s no lasting damage and he should be okay to train some time this week.’
That news is a huge relief to Clancy who is already without fellow midfielder Jake Hyland as he continues his recovery from a broken leg.
‘Jake is back and doing his rehab with [physio] Dave [Cooke],’ the manager reported.
‘When you have surgery like that - and I’ve been through it myself - every time you do something you get a bit of pain and it’s only natural that when he feels pain he gets a bit anxious.
‘But he’s back jogging and he won’t be far off.’
The Drogs continue their pre-season schedule with a game against Republic of Ireland Under-19s at Abbotstown tonight (Tuesday) at 7pm - although Clancy said it could be played behind closed doors. United then travel to Richmond Park on Friday to play St Patrick’s Athletic (7.45pm).
The result apart, Clancy was more than happy with his charges’ performance against Harps whose only shot on target was that controversial penalty.
‘It was a good game for us and it gets us another 90 minutes to get the lads doing what we’ve worked on, and I thought we played really well.
‘It was a soft enough penalty and we restricted them to a few chances. In both the previous games [against Derry and Dundalk] all the goals came in the first half and we said to try and defend.
‘We want to play football and entertain, but defend as well, and I thought we were very good defensively. Last year we were probably one or two players short in attacking areas of the pitch that can cause problems for opposition defences, but Adam Wixted and Tommy Byrne gives us that quality.
‘The patterns and the way we want to play was starting to click a bit more.’
Meanwhile, Conor Hoey was officially elected as Drogheda United chairman at the club’s agm last week and will be joined on the board of directors by Andrew Purcell, Jim McArdle and Enda McCarville.
The previous board - Joseph Cowley, Derek Kerr and chairman Fiachra Kierans - were warmly thanked and the new chairman said there was great excitement about the season ahead, the proposed new stadium and plans for this, the centenary year.
• United Park plays host to the FAI Schools Senior B Girls National Cup Final today (Tuesday) as Mulroy College (Milford) take on St Laurence College of Loughlinstown, with a 1pm kick-off.