Attack may be best form of defence for Drogs
THE need for goals and wins has got the Drogheda United management team contemplating a more attacking 4-4-2 formation for the trip to Shamrock Rovers as they attempt to end their 540-minute spell without scoring.
Still smarting from their 6-0 roasting at the hands of Dundalk at United Park last week, the Drogs head to Tallaght this Friday (kick-off 8pm) looking to pick up some kind of a positive result to boost confidence levels and haul themselves back out of the relegation zone.
That won’t be easy given that Rovers have improved since the early days of the campaign, but the Boynesiders did pick up their best result of the season when scoring late to beat the Hoops at United Park and assistant manager John Gill is adamant that they can do it again.
‘We have to try to dust ourselves down and bounce back,’ he said, speaking after training on Sunday.
‘I said to Pete [Mahon] before the game on Friday - whatever happens tonight it won’t determine our season. After Shamrock Rovers we have Limerick and Finn Harps at home and Sligo away and we have to pick up results in those games.
‘Getting anything from the Dundalk match would have been a bonus and it’s the same with Shamrock Rovers.
‘We are at a different level to what Cork and Dundalk are at. It’s taken two or three years and a lot of money to get them to where they are, and good luck to them. We have to nurture our own players and try to work with the budget we have.
‘We beat Rovers last time and there’s no reason why we can’t do it again, but unfortunately with us it’s peaks and troughs.’
Gill didn’t have a clear view of the tackle that earned Thomas Byrne a straight red card against Dundalk when the score still stood at 0-0, and he refused to lay the blame for the defeat squarely at the Tenure teenager.
‘It was nip and tuck at the start and we had a good shape about us for the first half-hour, but the sending-off was a turning point - there’s no doubt about it,’ he said.
‘It’s not like Arsene Wenger, but I actually didn’t see the incident. From what I can gather from talking to people, it was only a yellow card, but we’d spoken beforehand about discipline and keeping 11 players on the pitch, but it was not to be.
‘Playing with 10 against Dundalk in those hot conditions, it was always going to be tough.
‘Thomas is a lovely lad and a very good footballer with a very good football brain, but he’s got to learn and the sending-off cost us.
‘I’m not blaming him, though, because Dundalk might have won the match anyway. The defending was poor and in my view four of the goals were very preventable.’
Positives from a Drogheda point of view were the improved performance of Sean Brennan, and the display of Ryan Masterson who was making his first start after a brief cameo against Bohemians before the summer break.
‘Ryan was decent,’ Gill opined. ‘He was physical and he was getting involved in the game, but we might have to be bolder and go 4-4-2. We need wins and we can only get them if we start scoring goals.
‘At the start of the season we would have been content with where we are now, though, and I think we’ve done well.’
Byrne’s dismissal sees him automatically banned for the trip to Tallaght, and he could well miss both of the crucial upcoming games against Finn Harps and Sligo Rovers as well, depending on how many additional games he is suspended for.
Gavin Brennan is also set to miss another two games after damaging ankle ligaments during training in the build-up to last week’s derby clash.
However, Richie Purdy, Jake Hyland and Kevin Farragher are all pushing for a recall and Lloyd Buckley is close to making a comeback after a long spell on the sidelines through injury.
Rovers, who beat Finn Harps 1-0 in Ballybofey last week, have David Webster and Trevor Clarke available after suspension, but Graham Burke and former Drog David McAllister will miss out again as they serve the second of their two-match bans.