MARCUS CAVAROLI
IT might only be Drogheda’s third game of the season, but Richie O’Farrell believes a second home defeat on the bounce would be a serious blow to their promotion aspirations.
The Boynesiders play host to O’Farrell’s old club UCD this Friday night and the 19-year-old knows there’s no room for sentiment when they go into battle with the students who were relegated at the end of last season.
Asked if it would be unthinkable for Drogheda to lose their first two home league games - they only lost three at United Park in the whole of last season - O’Farrell agreed.
‘Definitely,’ he replied. ‘ We can’t afford to lose too many more, especially at home, and we can’t dwell on last week - we need to get the heads back on.
‘I know most of them, even the lads that are new because they would have been training with us towards the end of last season even though they weren’t playing.
‘They’ve lost a few players as well, but they’re still a very good team if they turn up. They’ll get the ball down and play football and they will feel they can beat teams.
‘They might not be challenging for the league, but they’ll be looking to get into the play-offs and we won’t be able to take anything for granted.’
O’Farrell would appear to have a clearly defined role under manager Tim Clancy as a box-to-box midfielder, and that’s something that pleases him after a mixed season in 2019.
‘I’m half-way through my degree, so I could have stayed with UCD. I played a lot for them in the Premier Division last year and got a lot of experience, but it was frustrating as well.
‘I was played in a lot of different positions and it felt like I was being used as a squad player. I wanted to go somewhere I could play a bigger role.’
Drogheda would appear to fit that bill, and while there’ll be expectation among the fans for O’Farrell to perform, given his Premier experience, that’s something he’s happy to deal with.
‘When you look at the players we signed, I suppose there will always be pressure. People are tipping us to win the league and that’s football and you have to play under pressure.
‘But that’s what you want to play in, that kind of environment where it means more, and when things go well it’s really enjoyable.
‘I think I have a lot more in me. People have seen glimpses of what I can do, but you have to earn the right to play and when you look at our bench, there’s lads like James Clarke and Sean Brennan and all over the pitch we have a lot of competition.
‘I’m looking to build on what I’ve done so far and get more involved, create chances and hopefully score a few goals.
‘But the First Division is tough. The game in Cobh was a bit of a reality check. Last year I was used to UCD sitting in deep and playing on the counter because they were in a relegation battle.
‘Now it’s the other team that sits in and we have to find a way to break them down and turn the screw in games.’
A case in point was last Friday night when Longford managed to score an early goal and then seemed happy to soak up the pressure after that, although Drogheda did eventually manage to carve out a couple of clear openings.
‘It was frustrating because I thought we dominated from the moment they scored. At the start we struggled to get into the game and conceded a few cheap free kicks and a few corners which got them up the pitch.
‘Then we conceded and gave them something to hold onto, but after that we were on top for the majority of the game.
‘We know we could have got something out of it, but didn’t take our chances. Doyler had one off the bar and Chris had that opportunity at the end and the keeper was the best player for them which says a lot about the pressure we put on them.’
Like most others in the ground, O’Farrell was bemused by the two yellow cards dished out to Brandon Bermingham and insisted the youngster had nothing to be sorry about.
‘I could not get my head around it,’ the ex UCD man said.
‘I didn’t think the first one was a free kick and he was only on the pitch 15 minutes when he got sent off. We were telling him he was just unlucky and there’s not much you can do. It’s not as if he went in stupidly or lost the head.’