‘The players are playing for the manager’

SEAN Brennan ended Drogheda United’s 10-hour scoring drought at Tallaght Stadium on Friday night, but in terms of significance it barely registered on the radar as his team shipped another four goals.

And with two of the club’s most experienced players - including his elder brother Killian - having quit United Park, the remaining squad members face a real test of character as they prepare to host Limerick this Friday.

In the immediate aftermath of the defeat by Shamrock Rovers, though, the focus was no Drogheda’s continuing frailties at both ends of the field.

‘It’s one positive, probably the only one,’ Sean (pictured below) began when asked about finally registering a goal after the team had drawn six blanks in a row.

‘We’re conceding too many goals and confidence is low as well. You can see that from some of the chancating chances we’re creating

- there’s no conviction.ont

‘We justont need to try and stop the rot now and we have to pickk up some sort of result nextrtx t week becauseuse it’s a massive game for us.

‘They probablyably had more possession and had a few half-chances in the first half, but they were quiet enough and we were happy enough coming into at half-time, thinking we could come out and get something in the second half.

‘But Plan A went out the window after 20 seconds and we had to try and regroup and I thought we did okay and then gave away a poor second goal. We got back into the game and were disappointed again to concede another sloppy goal. The goals we’re giving away are just terrible.’

Brennan was as surprised as anyone when Drogheda found themselves still very much in the game going into the latter stages.

‘We were second best at that stage, way off it [when Rovers went 2-0 ahead], and yet we were still in the game with 15 minutes to go. At 2-1 we had a couple of half-chances and you could see they looked a bit rattled, and they kind of sat back a bit and we believed we could get something out of the game.

‘But to give away that third sloppy goal killed us.’

Following on from the six-goal hammering at the hands of Dundalk, once again Drogheda’s defensive deficiencies are being highlighted after keeping three successive clean sheets before the summer break, yet the back four and goalkeeper remained in place for the Rovers match.

‘The whole team is responsible - it’s not down to individuals. We all take collective responsibility as a unit,’ Brennan insisted.

‘For half an hour we played quite well last week [against Dundalk] and then being a man down changed things, but I don’t think you could pinpoint any individual for being to blame for any of the goals.’

Brennan’s omission from the starting line-up was a bit of an eye-opener, but he insisted the squad were right behind the management team as they prepare for the visit of Limerick.

‘I was surprised I didn’t start tonight. I have been struggling a little bit with a knee injury ryinjury and PePete said he was gogoing to play two up top and for me to take a rerest.

‘I was disappointed, apdisappointed, bubut Pete picks whwhatever team he tthinks is going inggoing to win the game and I just have to deal with that.

‘I think the playeplayers are playing for the manager and I think you can see that in most cases. Little individual errors are killing us for the goals, but everybody is putting in their shift, but everybody is working hard on the training pitch and in the games and everybody respects them [management team].

‘Most of the games we play we think we can win. They’re two massive games coming up and we have to pick ourselves up and believe we can go and win them.’

As for the departure of his sibling Killian and Marc Griffin, Sean wasn’t about to be drawn into the controversy.

‘You’d have to speak to Killian individually [about the circumstances], but it’s a blow because he’s a big player. Unfortunately we didn’t get too much game time out of him because he picked up a nasty injury early on, but even in the dressing-room he’ll be a massive loss because he’s a big character for us and it’s the same with Griff.

‘Killian was a big character for a lot of the young lads who looked up to him and we’ll miss him around the place.’