Purdy can’t wait for showdown with the Hoops

THE signings of 2016 loan stars Richie Purdy and Gareth McCaffrey on permanent deals along with Gavin Brennan were widely acclaimed when they were announced in pre-season and this Friday the trio come up against their former club Shamrock Rovers.

Drogheda fans were particularly surprised that the talented young pair had opted for United Park, especially as the Hoops had adopted a strong policy of promoting youngsters to the first team, but Purdy has insisted that he was always likely to rejoin Pete Mahon’s squad after such a memorable run-in to the 2016 season.

Now he’s looking forward to crossing swords with some of his former teammates and attempting to help bring to an end a run of five straight defeats for Drogheda.

‘That was one of the games I looked at when we got the fixtures,’ he admitted, ‘so we’ll get a good week of training and go again on Friday. That’s all we can do.

‘I think they are beatable and I’m looking forward to it.’

Purdy, who is still only 19, believes Drogheda’s appalling record against Shamrock Rovers at United Park is an added incentive and he doesn’t feel the club’s run of disappointing results will have a bearing on Friday’s result.

‘We knew it was going to be tough coming up [from the First Division], but we have to stick together and keep a good team spirit and I think we have that,’ he said.

‘We’ve lost five [in a row], but in two we could have got something out of them. Against Bray we should have got a draw, and against Bohs I thought we should have won that. The other games, you can say we couldn’t have won them.’

Asked about his decision to join Drogheda rather than return to Shamrock Rovers after his loan spell, Purdy responded: ‘For me it was an easy decision [to join Drogheda] when we got promoted. It was an enjoyable time when I came and when that final whistle came against Wexford it was 90% I wanted to come here because the fans have been great.

‘We lost 2-0 down in Wexford in the first leg [of the play-off] and they were cheering us home, so you can’t beat that and it’s easy to play then because you know they’re not on your back.’

Purdy isn’t expecting a rough reception from Rovers fans, who would only have seen him play in the occasional cup game, but more importantly he’s hoping to make a positive impact on Drogheda supporters after being controversially sent off early in the home game against Cork and then missing the Bray and Bohemians matches through suspension.

There’s also the small matter of drawing a line under last Friday’s Louth derby result, although Purdy insisted it wasn’t all bad news from a Drogheda perspective.

‘We weathered the storm a little bit at the start,’ he agreed. ‘We stood off looking at them when we should have got in their faces, but we can learn from that and bring it into the next few games.

‘They are a good side, but I thought we battled well for the first 60 minutes, we were well in it and we had a chance.

‘My dad played here [with Dundalk] for a few years and he always said, no matter how high they were in the league, it was always a 50/50 game [against Drogheda], no matter what.

‘But the sending-off killed us. It’s hard when you go down to 10 men because they’re so good on the ball and they can move it well. It’s tough to get around them and you’re just hoping to catch them on the break then.

‘I can’t remember the first one [yellow card], but with the second they were on the break so he was going to give him [Ciaran McGuigan] another yellow, no matter what, but there’s nothing you can do about refereeing decisions.

‘We just have to keep fighting.’