‘Water’ relief as Drogs’ friendly beats the freeze
JUGS of boiling water helped prevent another unfortunate postponement at United Park last Saturday as a partly frozen pitch put Drogheda’s pre-season friendly against Finn Harps under threat.
The match kicked off 20 minutes later than planned after problems with the Harps team bus, but only after Drogs officials went back and forth to the clubhouse to boil water and empty it around the sixyard box at the partially shaded Anneville Crescent end.
There was relief all round when the match was given the go-ahead, particularly as Harps were the ‘victims’ last February when inadequate floodlighting caused the opening league game of the 2018 campaign to be called off after the scheduled kick-off time.
Of course the Donegal men went on to beat Drogheda in an end-of-season play-off en route to promotion, but despite overcoming the Boynesiders again in this friendly Harps were very much second best over the 90 minutes.
In fact Drogheda were a joy to watch at times as they sprayed passes around the field with an authority and accuracy that bodes well for their prospects in 2019.
In glorious winter sunshine there was little goalmouth action to speak of in the opening quarter-hour, apart from one occasion when Sean Brennan floated a lovely ball over the top for Thomas Byrne who just couldn’t take it in his stride after a great run in behind the visitors’ defence.
The Harps goal, which turned out to be the winner, came in the 18th minute completely against the run of play - and had a degree of controversy about it. Nathan Boyle made a darting run into the box, but Conor Kane seemed to have the situation under control as he shepherded the striker towards the endline. Boyle, though, tumbled to the ground after what looked like a slight nudge at best, the referee was sufficiently convinced to award a penalty and Boyle himself sent Paul Skinner the wrong way from the spot.
Drogheda’s sense of misfortune was then multiplied within 60 seconds when the woodwork came to Harps’ rescue. An Adam Wixted corner picked out the unmarked Mark Hughes and his header was parried by Harps keeper Ciaran Gallagher. Chris Lyons was onto the rebound in a flash but smashed it off the upright from point-blank range.
A minute later Brennan rolled a free kick into the path of Lyons who turned smartly and saw his shot deflected wide.
From the resulting corner, Drogheda’s third in as many minutes, Brennan’s whipped inswinger nearly caught Gallagher unawares before being punched clear at the near post.
The unfortunate Brennan limped off very gingerly shortly before the half-hour following a late tackle from Mark Coyle, after which Luke Gallagher hit the resulting 35-yard free kick inches past Gallagher’s right-hand post with a superb strike.
The half ended with another Drogheda chance as Mark Doyle won possession off Keith Cowan before releasing Wixted whose shot was again deflected narrowly wide.
On the restart Caolan McAleer registered the visitors’ first shot in more than half an hour - ballooning a long-range effort well off target - before Doyle sent a speculative shot rising just over the bar for Drogheda.
Doyle had another sniff of goal on 57 minutes. The Skerries man received a pass from Cian Kavanagh and shipped the ball on to Lyons and the striker’s pinpoint cross was steered wide by the number 14.
On 67 minutes it was Doyle again who was left frustrated. Great wing play by Wixted set up the opportunity, but Doyle snatched at the chance and sent it over the bar.
Byrne then sent a sliderule pass into Wixted who for a moment was one-on-one with Gallagher. However, the Harps defence did really well to get back and partially block Wixted’s shot.
With a raft of substitutions, the play became a bit more scrappy in the latter stages, but Luke Gallagher was determined to add to the goal he scored in Oriel Park the week before and he had two wayward headers as well as a shot that rose just over the Harps crossbar.
In the end it just wasn’t Drogheda’s day, but unconvincing finishing apart there were plenty of positive signs as the league kick-off draws ever closer.