Strike rate the key to Drogs achieving their survival goal
PETE Mahon says he believes goals are the only missing ingredient from the Drogheda United team this year and addressing that weakness will be the key to the club’s Premier Division survival prospects.
Last Friday’s stalemate at Dalymount Park ensured a third successive clean sheet, but the Boynesiders have now failed to find the net in seven and a half hours of football and Mahon will view a number of trialists over the next few weeks in the hope of uncovering some fresh talent.
The SSE Airtricity League is now in its summer mini-break, with Drogheda not due to return to action until Dundalk visit United Park on Friday week, and recent signing Ryan Masterson should see action in that game after making his debut off the bench last week.
As things stand, the Boynesiders have 17 points from as many games and lie one point above the relegation zone, and Mahon believes that on current form his team don’t look like relegation candidates.
‘In the overall swing of things, we could have four or five more points, but I’m sure every team would say the same,’ he said.
‘Sometimes the league table shows a true reflection and I think at the start of the season everybody had us dead and buried, but we’re still fighting there and if we could score a few goals - there’s no way that team looks like one that’s going to get relegated.
‘We’re giving every ounce of energy every week and we just have to score a goal, that’s all.
‘It’s very, very hard to judge [Ryan Masterson] on that [substitute appearance], but we’ve seen him in training and the one thing he can do is finish.
‘We have to create the chances for him and maybe, if he had been given the chances there tonight, he would have scored, but it’s all ifs and maybes.
‘We can’t dwell on it too long. We have to move on now and try and address the problem.
‘That’s five consecutive games when we haven’t scored, and if you don’t score goals you don’t win games, so I’m very, very disappointed with that end of it.
‘On the positive side, we’ve managed to redress the amount of goals we’re giving away. That’s three consecutive clean sheets now, but it’s only got us three points, where I felt in the last three games we could have got two wins anyway.’
Asked whether there would be movement in the July transfer window, Mahon responded: ‘I don’t know. I’m going to have to speak to a couple of players because obviously if they’re not playing it’s not fair on them and it’s not fair on us either.
‘We have a couple of players coming up on trial in the next couple of weeks and we’ll probably play them in the Ipswich Town game on July 8th.
‘We’re going to play a non-league team, Truro City, on July 27th - it just has to be confirmed. Chris Todd, who played Drogheda back in the day, is the manager there and they want us to give them a game, so we’re going to try and fit them in.’
Mahon was in jovial form after the final whistle in Dalymount Park as he joked with squad members and wished them a good holiday, and the relief was obvious after Drogheda survived a couple of late scares.
‘I said to Mark Kinsella in the dugout, I hope it’s not deja vu like it was in United Park where they caught us at the end from a set piece.
‘They did get a couple of free kicks and corner kicks and long throws and you’re always worried that they’re going to get a nick and maybe score a goal that wouldn’t have been deserved really, but such has been our luck all year.
‘We thought it was going to happen again, but thankfully it didn’t and we held out.’