Drogs keepers in a three-way fight for jersey
DROGHEDA United boss Tim Clancy insists there’s still time for his two most experienced goalkeepers to prove their fitness before the league season starts in a little over a fortnight despite both being currently sidelined because of injury.
Luca Gratzer injured his foot in training and hasn’t played any part in the club’s last three friendly matches, while recent signing Ross Treacy lasted just seven minutes of last Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to Dundalk before coming off after colliding with the post in making a save.
It’s hardly an ideal situation to be in so close to the start of the Division 1 campaign, but on a positive note the form of 18-yearold understudy David Odumosu has been excellent and he made a number of outstanding saves at Oriel Park.
Odumosu, who played for Dundalk Undr-19s last year before making the short hop down the M1 just before Christmas, has played considerably more minutes than either Gratzer or Treacy in pre-season and Clancy hasn’t ruled out starting him in two weeks’ time.
Asked about the condition of Gratzer and Treacy yesterday (Monday) afternoon the United boss told the Drogheda Independent: ‘We’re not too sure.
‘Luca has to go for a scan on his foot, and Ross took a knock the other night and had a scan during the game and there’s no structural damage.
‘I spoke to Dave [Odumosu] and I said he’s not coming in as the third-choice keeper. He is one of the three main keepers we have and I’d have no problem putting him in [for the first league game].
‘I spoke to all three of them at the start of the season and anyone who knows me knows that players aren’t picked on reputation.
‘But it’s still early days and we have two [pre-season] games to go.’
The first of those games is away to St Patrick’s Athletic this Friday (kick-off 7.45pm in Richmond Park) and the club are in the process of finalising one final match the following week against a topflight Irish League club in Belfast.
At the time of going to press it still wasn’t clear whether there have been any progress in solving the row over Shamrock Rovers B’s admission to the First Division, but with no public comment from the First Division Alliance in recent days it’s looking more likely that the season will kick off as planned away to Cobh Ramblers on Saturday 22nd.
However, there have been twists in this saga previously, notably when Limerick were invited to submit an application for a First Division licence after the original fixture list was released, and the Licensing Committee are due to meet this week.
Looking back at the game in Oriel Park, where Dundalk ended comfortable enough winners to lift the Jim Malone Cup for the fifth time in a row, Clancy was happy with the way his team approached the game after conceding five goals in the first half-hour of last year’s fixture.
‘Last year I thought our attitude was a bit wrong with our outlook to the game,’ he said. ‘We seemed to think we were playing Barcelona rather than a League of Ireland team, so this year we wanted to approach the game differently.
‘Barring set pieces, I don’t really believe they opened us up and we worked hard, looked very fit and were very disciplined.’
On the subject of set pieces, Clancy stopped short of criticising his own players over their defending of corners that led to two clear-cut headed chances in quick succession for Dane Massey in the first half.
‘There was a block being worked into every set piece which is not part of the game,’ the manager complained.
‘There’s no clarification of the rules needed - you have to play the ball.’
Mark Hughes was named in the starting line-up for the Dundalk game but pulled out after getting a reaction to a foot knock he’d suffered in training the night before, while Luke Heeney also didn’t feature because of a tight hamstring.
•James Carroll, the son of former Drogheda United assistant manager John Carroll, has signed for Drogheda’s First Division rivals Wexford.
The 19-year-old defender moved from United Park to Dundalk for a spell and played in an FAI Cup tie last year, but has decided to move on to improve his chances of regular first-team football.