Bull up for the challenge
SQUARE UNITED 0 BLACK BULL 2
MANAGER Pat Mohan has hailed his Black Bull players after they made history for the club by securing promotion to the NEFL Premier Division for the first time.
A win away to Square United last Wednesday was enough to overhaul Ardee Celtic and finish runners-up to newly-crowned Division 1 champions OMP United, and third-placed Ardee must now play off against Boyne Harps for the right to play in the top flight next season.
Reflecting on Black Bull’s achievement, former Drogheda United star Mohan said: ‘Our target for this year was promotion and anything else was going to be a bonus, so I went out to bring in the players we needed and thankfully we did it.
‘The players were outstanding. The numbers at training was great, which means a lot, and it was similar to when we won the Premier Division with Boyne Harps.
‘They are the type of lads, there’s no primadonnas. If you have two or three lads in a corner, it doesn’t help the other players, but this squad works together and that means a lot in any team.
‘A big plus was bringing in Manny Smith and Gary Nugent and keeping Evan Corlett injurywe had great backing as well from the reserves who could still win their league and I’m really happy for Mark Gibbons and Ger Egan as well.’
Mohan also paid tribute to his management team of Gel Martin, Bernard McEvoy and Tom Kavanagh. Tom is in his fifties and is the reserve keeper, and he played a few first-team games when Alan Sweeney was injured.
Just as they did the previous week against Johnstown, Black Bull stormed out of the blocks and inside the first two minutes Manny Smith took on three Square players before unleashing a powerful shot that forced the Square keeper into a fantastic save.
The breakthrough goal arrived barely 60 seconds later when a cross was partially cleared by the Square defence towards David Donovan who unleashed a rasping shot that took a slight deflection en route to the roof of the net.
When goal number two went in after 15 minutes - another ex-
cellent curling strike from Kenny Hurley - Black Bull were well on their way to promotion. However, to their credit, Square recovered and pressed hard in the second half, during which Sweeney had to make a couple of fine saves.
Top scorer Corlett could have added to Black Bull’s tally on several occasions, but for once the striker was out of luck in front of goal.
In the end it was comfortable enough for the Drogheda club and planning has already begun for next season when they will come up against the likes of Newfoundwell, Navan Cosmos, Bellurgan United and defending champions Muirhevnamor.
Looking ahead, Mohan said: ‘It’s difficult going up a level, but we have the base of players there and we’ll have to bring in a couple more players as well.’
BLACK BULL: Alan Sweeney, Niall Black, Philly Meegan, Luke McDonnell (Aidan Raftery), Niall Levins, David Donovan, Mark Gibbons, Manny Smith, Gary Nugent, Evan Corlett, Kenny Hurley (Barry Reynolds). Subs not used: Helder Goncalves, Cathal Giblin, Dylan Kirwan, Ronan Freeman, Barry McQuaile, Tom Kavanagh. •Black Bull have successfully appealed to the FAI an earlier decision to award the three points for their scheduled Premier Reserve home match against Ardee Celtic.
That game will now be refixed, and should Black Bull win a playoff will be necessary with Duleek to determine the destination of the title.