Tim feels last year’s defeats by Longford are irrelevant
DROGHEDA United boss Tim Clancy insists that last season’s bad run of results against Longford Town has no bearing on the 2020 campaign as his side prepare to host the midlanders in this Friday’s big First Division showdown (kick-off 7.45pm).
Both teams began their campaigns with wins last Saturday - Drogheda away to Cobh and Longford at home to Shamrock Rovers II - and are the bookies’ favourites to finish in the top two come the autumn.
The Boynesiders have finished one place above Longford in each of the last two seasons - last time out only on goal difference - but lost all three meetings between the clubs in 2019 and that’s a record Clancy agrees he wants to see improve.
‘It would be nice to put down a marker,’ he said after the win in Cobh,’ and there were little words in the dressing-room about that.
‘It’s a game we’ll be looking at to try and win. We’re a slightly different team this year. We’ve got that bit more resilience about us, but we still carry that attacking threat as well.
‘We’ll approach the game well and try and get a win.’
Asked about how Longford managed to take nine points from nine against them last year, Clancy responded: ‘It doesn’t matter.
That’s last season - we’re on to a different season now.
‘We’re a different team and they’re a different team, so there’s no point in talking about last year.’
The manager also stopped short of touting Longford as Drogheda’s chief rivals, and pointed out that there is no talk of the Boynesiders talking themselves up as title contenders.
‘There’s a good few teams in the league that are going to be up there. We’re only one game in, so the league will probably look after itself after maybe two rounds of games and we’ll look to see where we are then.
‘We’re not saying that we’re going to be challengers. We’ve won one game and we’re going to try and improve on last year when we fell short. The goal is to try and improve again and if we do that we should go close.’
As rain and strong winds buffeted St Colman’s Park after the full-time whistle, Clancy said he was delighted with Drogheda’s 2-0 victory.
‘It’s a brilliant result for us on the first night of the season. I think Cobh are vastly improved from last season and he [manager Stuart Ashton] has them well organised and a very fit team this year.
‘It was a very, very tough game. I don’t think the pitch was great for both teams. It’s very hard at this time of year, but it was very bobbly and you could see it was stop-start and there were over-hit balls and whatever else.
‘We didn’t really change things tactically [for the second half], but we approached it a little bit different and played the conditions a bit better than we had in the first half.
‘I was delighted with our second half and it was a clean sheet as well - we didn’t get enough of them last year - and Chrissy got off the mark with a fantastic goal.
‘We were probably a bit fortunate for the penalty. I think Chris might have fouled the kid first before being taken down, but we’ll take that and Sean buried the penalty, and to get out of here with a 2-0 victory is very, very pleasing.
‘The players stuck at it and I think the games we played in pre-season, which were very tough for us, we probably benefited from in the last 20 minutes to half an hour when we looked very fit.’
After keeping a clean sheet against Cobh there’s every chance that 18-year-old David Odumosu will be handed the goalkeeper’s jersey again for the visit of Longford and Clancy was full of praise for the former Dundalk Under-19s player.
Explaining his selection ahead of Ross Treacy - Luca Gratzer is carrying a foot injury - Clancy said: ‘Ross has come in and done well. He was unfortunate to get injured against Dundalk and was lacking a bit of game time.
‘He played against Cliftonville, which was probably a bit unfair to him because the conditions were woeful. There was a mix-up with the bus and whatnot, so it wasn’t a great game for us, but David has done really well in the three games he’s been in.
‘I’ve said to all the keepers that whoever does well will get their
hands on the jersey.
‘David probably had a bit of luck with regard to Luca getting injured and Ross getting injured as well, but he certainly took his chance.
‘He spilled one at the end there, but he made a very good save when he reacted to it, and a couple of shots that were at him he held them well and came for a cross, and I thought it was very impressive for an 18-year-old.’
Along with Gratzer, Mark Hughes and Jordan Adeyemo were nursing injuries at the weekend and the Longford game will probably come too soon for Gratzer, while it’s not clear yet whether either Hughes or Adeyemo will be available for selection.
The Drogs will face two home games against Andy Myler’s UCD in the space of three days in early March after being drawn against the Students in the EA Sports Cup first round. The sides meet in the league on Friday March 6th and will renew acquaintances the following Monday.
Meanwhile, club chairman Conor Hoey and his board of directors were unanimously re-elected at last Thursday night’s agm in United Park.