Mahon’s local contingent set for first starts as pre-season gets underway
THE three Brennan brothers and Sean Thornton will all make their 2017 debuts for Drogheda United over the next 36 hours as Pete Mahon’s continue their pre-season with games away to Ballinamallard and at home to Cabinteely.
The Boynesiders were en route to Ferney Park, near Enniskillen, on Tuesday afternoon ahead of their 7.45pm fixture against the Irish Premiership club, who defeated Glentoran away from home at the weekend. Then it’s back to United Park for Wednesday’s game against Cabo - also 7.45pm - who are now managed by Pat Devlin and include veteran Jason Byrne in their ranks.
Then it’s off to the south east to play Wexford Youths on Friday (8pm), with last season’s First Division champions Limerick set to visit United Park on Wednesday week, February 8th.
As he prepared to join up with the squad at CityNorth Hotel on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the trip north, Mahon issued an unusual request as he attempts to tie up a deal for American winger Ryan Masch who impressed in last Thursday’s 4-1 friendly win at Drogheda Town.
‘It was a good night all round. We got 90 minutes under our belts and Thomas Byrne played very well for us along with Conor Kane and Ryan Masch. They were the three standout players.
Ryan is supposed to go back [to the States] on Sunday, but I was speaking to him last night and he is really settled and interested in staying with us.
‘We’re hoping to keep him, but the accommodation is going to be a problem, so if there’s any Drogheda supporters with a room to spare I would be very glad to speak to them.’
Fellow American Joe Efford will also be given another chance in one of the upcoming friendlies after suffering concussion during the first half of the game in Marian Park,
but Mahon won’t be signing either of the trial goalkeepers who featured and he remains without a netminder to give genuine competition for Stephen McGuinness.
‘I’m really struggling there,’ Mahon agreed. ‘We have the two boys from the Under-19s, Jamie Hickey who’s from Drogheda and Dylan Sweeney from Skerries, and we’re going to use them against Cabinteely, but we need someone with a bit more experience and at the moment things are going nowhere with that.’
Richie Purdy (ankle) and Colm Deasy (knee) are unlikely to be risked against Ballinamallard, while work commitments rule out Gareth McCaffrey and he is likely to feature in the Cabinteely game instead. Both Deasy and Purdy have been called into the Republic of Ireland Under-21 home-based squad for a friendly against the Ireland amateurs on February 11th.
Mahon said he was hoping that the Brennans and Sean Thornton would make a positive impact in this week’s friendlies after sitting out last week’s game against Drogheda Town.
‘I hope they’re chomping at the bit,’ he responded. ‘You would imagine they would be after so much training. We’ve had 14 training sessions already, so they should be mad to play.
‘Last week’s friendly was a good night all round. I was really pleased with the reception we got up and there are really good people up there [in Drogheda Town]. We got 90 minutes under our belts and it was good in the sense that we came out injury-free.’
•Fixtures have been announced for the upcoming National Under-17 and Under-19 Leagues and Drogheda United Under-17s will host Longford Town in their first-ever match in that competition on the week ending Sunday March 19th. The Under-19 League begins a week earlier and again Drogheda will have home advantage in their opening game against Bohemians.