Dispirited Drogheda crumble at the Cross
THE imposing facade of Christ the King Church dominated the skyline looking out from Cork City’s main stand on Friday evening, and even before kick-off a thought sprung to mind - Drogheda hadn’t a prayer of achieving a result.
It was a realistic assessment of their prospects, given the two teams’ respective form and Drogheda’s worrying lack of striking options thanks to injuries to Stephen Elliott and Thomas Byrne as well as Gareth McCaffrey’s departure from the club during the week.
But even allowing for Cork’s full-time status and their significant home advantage, it was difficult to comprehend how easily Drogheda disintegrated, and for the second game in succession they could have been six goals or more adrift before half-time.
That lack of backbone is something that is going to have to be addressed very quickly or the Boynesiders could find themselves at the bottom of the table and heading towards an instant return to Division 1.
Jake Hyland provided a glimmer of hope when he forced a corner inside 30 seconds of this match, but that set piece came to nothing and by the 80th minute Drogheda had still failed to muster a single attempt at the Cork goal.
No doubt Cork manager John Caulfield is rethinking the view expressed in his programme notes - that Drogheda should be good enough to avoid relegation come the end of the season.
The Leesiders were actually pretty slow out of the blocks and all of six minutes were on the clock when a tame-looking shot by Garry Buckley was blocked behind by Ciaran McGuigan, although it seemed to be running harmlessly through to keeper Stephen McGuinness.
Cork looked considerably more dangerous from their next attack, though, as Stephen Dooley sprinted away from Drogs right-back Shane Elworthy and crossed towards Karl Sheppard and Sean Maguire, only for Conor Kane to come to the rescue with a superb block at the near post.
Moments later Dooley muscled his way past Elworthy again and this time he dribbled along the endline before poking the ball right across the six-yard box, with no takers.
Already the opening goal was beginning to look inevitable, and it duly came in the 10th minute. This time Drogheda seemed to have plenty numbers back, but Jimmy Keohane took possession 25 yards out and managed to negotiate a route round them unchallenged before shooting low and hard under the helpless McGuinness.
Maguire then teed up Buckley who side-footed wide and when McGuinness was forced to do a bit of sweeping and made a hash of his clearance, Greg Bolger had an empty goal in front of him – albeit some 70 yards away. Fortunately for Drogheda, he pulled his attempt towards the corner flag.
The reprieve was temporary, though, and it’s difficult to think of any game in recent history where the Boynesiders have conceded three goals in as many minutes.
Maguire arrived at the near post to steer in a Buckley cross to kickstart the implosion, and the Soccer Republic analysts will no doubt be frothing at the mouth over Sheppard’s 60-second brace which put Cork 4-0 ahead with three quarters of the game still to play.
The former Reading man showed Conor Kane a clean pair of heels before dribbling into the box and dinking a superb effort over McGuinness from a tight angle.
Cork then won possession back straight from the start and Maguire galloped up the right wing before squaring to Sheppard whose instantaneous chip had class written all over it as the ball dipped in under the crossbar.
Quite frankly, a shell-shocked Drogheda could have conceded another three goals over the next three minutes. Maguire headed straight at McGuinness from a Sheppard cross, Kevin O’Connor had a shot touched around the post by the keeper at full stretch and Shane Elworthy toe-poked the ball an inch wide of his own net to cut out a Garry Buckley cross which was aimed towards Maguire.
Shortly past the half-hour mark, Cork had clocked up eight corner kicks, Hyland was booked for a scything challenge that probably saved another goal and Drogheda’s Richie Purdy then limped off.
The fact that the Boynesiders didn’t have a sub ready to replace him summed up their evening as they were forced to play for 90 seconds with 10 men before Sean Thornton was allowed on.
Greg Bolger, Cork’s replacement for April Player of the Month Conor McCormack who was suspended, just failed to connect with a Dooley centre as half-time came to Drogheda’s relief.
The Boynesiders did look better organised on the restart, with Thornton giving them more of a presence in midfield and fellow sub Stephen Dunne improving things marginally at right-back, but Cork weren’t about to stroll through an entire half without trying to score a few in front of the Shed End.
Their opening salvo featured a fierce Dooley shot that struck Ciaran McGuigan, and Maguire headed wide after great work on the byeline by Dooley. Maguire then trapped his goalkeeper Mark McNulty’s kickout in an instant and attempted a chip which dipped over Drogheda’s crossbar.
But Maguire would grab his second goal of the evening in the 61st minute, pouncing on a mistake by Killian Brennan before rifling a shot past McGuinness - 5-0.
The former West Ham striker, who is being tipped for a move back across the water, missed two other scoring chances straight after.
It was at this point that the press box suffered a series of brief power outages. Perhaps the fault would spread and Pete Mahon’s team