Drogs made favourites for Division 1 honours
DROGHEDA United will kick off the new SSE Airtricity League First Division season away to Cobh Ramblers on Saturday with the tag of title favourites resting on their shoulders after Boylesports made them an 11/4 shot to go up as champions.
The Boynesiders have reached the promotion play-offs in each of the last two years under Tim Clancy before losing to Finn Harps over two legs, but with Harps and last season’s First Division champions Shelbourne now plying their trade in the top flight the bookies feel Drogheda can make it third time lucky.
The Drogs have boasted a 100% record against Cobh Ramblers since Clancy took charge two years ago, scoring 21 goals and conceding only five in winning all six league meetings, and they will be hot favourites to get off to a winning start at St Colman’s Park where the kick-off time is 7pm.
That’s despite losing all six of their pre-season matches against Dundalk, Bohemians, St Patrick’s Athletic, Derry City, Sligo Rovers and - most recently - a 4-1 defeat to Irish League top flight club Cliftonville.
Clancy has retained most of the squad that went so close to securing promotion last November, with the likes of Chris Lyons, Mark Doyle, Adam Wixted, Jack Hyland, Conor Kane and James Brown all likely to start against the Cork outfit at the weekend.
There will certainly be a new pairing at centre-half where Derek Prendergast - in his second spell at United Park - is likely to be joined by another of the new signings in Hugh Douglas.
Richie O’Farrell, who played for UCD in the Premier Division last season, could well make his first competitive appearance for Drogheda at the heart of midfield, although Sean Brennan, Luke Heeney and Mark Hughes are also pushing for a starting place in an area of the field where the Boynesiders have plenty of options.
Clancy also has a big decision to make in between the sticks after Ross Treacy made his return from injury in that friendly against
Cliftonville.
Eighteen-year-old David Odumosu had looked to be in pole position for the jersey after impressing in previous pre-season games, but Treacy (21) could now get the nod.
There was no word at the time of going to press on Luca Gratzer who suffered a foot injury in training a number of weeks ago and was told to rest up, but with so little game time to date it would be a surprise if the former Shamrock Rovers man lined out in St Colman’s Park.
Cobh Ramblers, for their part, made significant progress last season, only to lose their manager Stephen Henderson during the summer, and interim manager Stuart Ashton has since been handed the role of head coach on a two-year contract.
He has made a number of new signings - Lee Devitt and Adam Foley from Limerick, John Kavanagh and Pierce Phillips from Cork City, Darryl Walsh from Waterford and a number of players from non-league football.
Result in pre-season have been on a par with Drogheda’s. Cobh did manage a draw against Premier Division opposition in Waterford, but they lost their other four games against St Patrick’s Athletic (4-1), Cork City (2-1), Ringmahon Rangers (1-0) and most recently Carrigaline 1-0 in the Munster Senior Cup.
Drogheda boss Clancy has argued that his team failed to win a pre-season game last year and still reached the promotion play-off decider. However, there’s no doubt that he’ll be anxious for his side to put their run of recent defeats behind them with a comfortable win before welcoming their likely closest rivals Longford Town to United Park on Friday week.
The midlanders are priced at 7/2 to be this year’s champions, while joint third favourites are Bray Wanderers and Galway United at 9/2 and Andy Myler’s UCD are best of the rest at 10/1.
Meanwhile, Drogheda United’s agm takes place in the clubhouse this Thursday evening and it will be followed at approximately 8.15pm - by a presentation from Kieran Lucid about the prospects of creating an All-Island League.