‘This more than likely will be my last year in the League of Ireland’

THE Leinster Senior Cup would be regarded as an unlikely competition to kick-start your season, but last week’s low-key quarter-final against Athlone Town turned out to be a real blessing for Drogheda United’s Adam Foley.

The 34-year-old had to be content with fleeting substitute appearances in the opening two games of the league campaign, and his first start – the victory over Bohemians – was cut short by injury, before he missed the subsequent two games against Galway United and Sligo Rovers.

But after netting a 30-minute hat-trick in the 4-0 win over Athlone, Foley is hoping he’s done enough to earn a recall to the starting line-up for the upcoming games against St Patrick’s Athletic and Dundalk.

“That’s my third hat-trick,” he recalled afterwards. “My first one was with Glenavon in 2017 and the second was with Newry in 2019, both league games.

“So I’m delighted, but it was more to get minutes in the tank tonight after missing two games with my shin.

“It was the Bohs game and I actually fell on top of Jordan Flores and his studs went through my shin, just below the knee. It was disgusting, but it’s grand now.

“Getting the four stitches in, I couldn’t obviously play and I only got them out on Thursday and then had to do a couple of days’ recovery after that.”

After playing just 91 minutes in Drogheda’s first five league matches, Foley might have been expected to stay on the field well into the second half, but circumstances dictated that he didn’t appear after the interval.

“I think when you score a hattrick and then get the minutes in the tank and I was on a yellow card as well...

“I was going to press the ball and I literally slipped and the ref came over and said it was reckless. Look, that’s his decision.

“He had a couple of words with me throughout the game, which I thought was a bit strange, so I was probably on a tightrope there, but I got my 45 minutes so I’m happy enough with that going into the Pats game.”

Manager Kevin Doherty was certainly content with the ruthless way his team put Athlone to the sword, after highlighting his side’s wastefulness in front of goal in the defeat by Sligo three nights earlier.

“We spoke about it before the game and we said we need to be clinical when we get into these areas,” said Foley.

“I know tonight’s not the same as a league game, but when you get to this level you need to take your chances when they come.

“We were unfortunate against

Sligo. I think the only difference in that game was that they were more clinical than us.

“It’s something we’re aware of and it’s something that we do work on quite a lot, so hopefully that’s the start of it and we’ll kick on and it’ll give us all a bit of confidence.

“I would be more concerned if we weren’t getting into the areas, but we are. Sometimes you need that bit of luck and I think I seen a stat the other day that we had 20 shots, the most in a Premier Division game – something crazy like that – but you do have games like that.

“Look, in the second half of last season we took our chances when we had to and it paid off for us. It’s still early, we’re only five games in.”

Foley smiled when asked if he felt his performance would be enough to regain his place in the starting line-up for Friday’s visit of St Patrick’s Athletic.

“I just play my part and I’m getting myself back fit. That was the main thing, and I wanted to try and get myself on the scoresheet. That’s always the plan as an attacking player. You pride yourself off goals and assists and getting into the right area and thankfully I took a few and that’s going to do me the world of good going into the Pats game.

“I just always try and get into the right areas. That’s what we’re supposed to do. We do a job for the team when we’re off the ball, but when we’re on the ball and we’re attacking we need to make sure we’re there and taking our chances.

With both St Pat’s and Drogheda coming off the back of league defeats and in the bottom three in the table, albeit at a very early stage, the significance of the match is not lost on Foley.

“It is a big game for both clubs,” he agreed.

“We’ve done well recently against them. We beat them here with a last-minute winner and we beat them up there with a late goal as well, so we’ve nothing to fear. We don’t fear any team in the league – we’ve beaten them all. We just need to get that consistency going, and there’s no better place to do it than here in front of a packed United Park. It’s going to be great and I can’t wait for it.

“We see it each year with some

of the big clubs, Rovers in particular. They always seem to start slow, but you expect the unexpected in this league. But Pat’s are going to be there or thereabouts towards the end of the season – we know that with the squad they have. The same with Rovers. They got their first win against Galway and they’ll probably kick on and we just need to make sure that Pat’s don’t do that here.

“It’s early days and I wouldn’t read too much into the league table. Everyone is beating everyone this season and it’s going to be the case the whole way through. We just need to make sure that we pick up as much points as we can and push up the table.

“We want to build on what we done here last season. It’s a really good squad we have, with more strength in depth as well. Kev and Daire know what they’re doing and we’re all fully with them the whole way.

“It’s our responsibility on the pitch to do a job – simple as. We’re organised, we’re set up perfectly every single week. There’s no excuses – we need to go and perform and be better.”

Foley was Drogheda’s top scorer last season with nine goals, but at 34 he’s realistic enough to accept that he’s coming to the end of his career – and this year could be his last, certainly in the League of Ireland.

“It gets harder to recover the older you get,” he reflected.

“Kev and Dáire, last year and this year, are just managing bodies and making sure we’re available and ready to be called upon.

“I’m full-time at work with Brett Martin. It’s the biggest plastic manufacturer in Ireland and I cover the whole of the Leinster area, so I’m out on the road constantly and we’re nearly full-time here (at Drogheda) as well.

“It’s long days. You’re up at 6 every morning and you come straight here (to training) after you finish work and then you’re not getting home until 8:30 or 8:45 every night, so they’re long days, but I love doing it.

“It’s hard to get the balance right. I was doing it last year and ran myself into the ground, so I said I need to take a step back from coaching (Drogheda underage teams).

“This more than likely will be my last year. Everyone is going full-time next year and I won’t be able to do that with work, so I’ll be looking to get straight into the coaching.

“I’m saying that now. There could be an opportunity to go back north semi-pro, but it’s just one of those things that with everyone going full-time I can’t.

“I just take each game as it comes and put my name in the hat to get into the team.”

While it will be a tough decision to hang up his boots, Foley is consoled by the fact that with young players like Evan Haddock, James Byrne and Osaze Irhue coming through from the U20s, the future looks bright.

“It’s great because there’s so many young players there from the U20s who came in (for the Athlone game) and we got a clean sheet and a couple of goals, and everyone played their part.

“We’ve had results over the years, even in this competition last year, where lads have come down and haven’t taken their chance.

“So credit to the boys. In fairness to them, they’ve been training well with us and when you chip in with a couple of goals and you’re all part of it and you get a clean sheet as well, it’s brilliant. Their confidence is going to be sky high now – that’s a senior appearance for them and they deserve it. They were absolutely brilliant and let’s hope they kick on as well.”