DROGS BARE TEETH AGAIN
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WEAVERS Park once again proved a graveyard of broken dreams.
Rovers often struggle here; Derry have a terrible record in this tight little stadium and last week Shels needed a last minute equaliser to secure a draw.
And once again, the most underrated team in the League of Ireland found a way to defy the odds and prove you don’t need a big budget to get big results.
This was a thriller, a game that ebbed and flowed, Drogheda taking the lead, Derry then taking control, Drogheda then nicking a point via an 85th minute equaliser from sub, Frantz Pierrot. They deserved it. Brilliant early on, they took the lead through Warren Davis who finished from short range after just three minutes..
There and then they were bullying Derry, Gary Deegan patrolling in front of the Drogheda defence like a nightclub bouncer determining who would be let through the doors.
And for 20 minutes, the answer was no one.
Deegan was immense, so too the defenders behind him, Hayden Cann and Jack Keaney.
Then disaster struck. First their right back, Andrew Quinn, went with an injury on 20 minutes and then nine minutes later their other full back, Evan Weir, joined him on the sideline.
In their absence, the Derry equaliser arrived, Daniel Kelly exploiting the space down the left vacated by Weir – who was off the field receiving treatment.
And within seconds, Drogheda’s defence was cut to shreds, Kelly supplying a through pass to Paul Mcmullan who immediately crossed into the box, where Michael Duffy was waiting to place his header past
Jethren Barr.
And in that one moment, the tone of the game changed.
Injury prevented Weir returning, Drogheda forced into their second substitution of the half, and their tactic of defending with a low block was reinforced.
Derry responded the way you’d expect them to, squeezing the play deeper into the Drogheda half, their captain, Cameron Mcjannet central to their new strategy.
It began to have an effect, Mcmullan centrally involved in so much of their play, Duffy a key man too.
But it was Will Patching who had the biggest say in the tone of that first half.
For two minutes before the break, he got the goal of the season to date, stepping forward into the Drogheda half, before sizing up his options.
No Drogs player sought to pressurise him into making a quick decision.
So instead Patching made a smart one, using his first touch to control the ball, his second to feint to pass, his third to curl an unstoppable shot beyond Barr. 2-1 Derry.
It could have been three – Danny Mullan hooking one shot wide, then looping a header onto the bar.
Drogheda were struggling for a period, but they rediscovered their rhythm and after a decent passage of play, they came close to a 67th minute equaliser, when Cann headed just wide.
A minute later Darragh Markey came even closer with a low shot from 25 yards.
From there on in, it was all Drogheda, their equaliser coming five minutes from time by Pierrot who calmly placed his shot past Brian Maher. It was no more than they deserved.