Below-par Town taste first defeat
DROGHEDA TOWN 2 CLONDALKIN CELTIC 3
AN outstanding goal by Man of the Match Emmanuel Santos proved to be in vain as Drogheda Town suffered their first league defeat of the season at Blackstone Marian Park last Friday night.
Manager Robbie Horgan was without Dale Harding through suspension after he scored both goals in Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw at Parkvilla, only to get sent off as Town finished that game with nine players.
Nevertheless, Drogheda opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when an inswinging corner from Alan Connor was met perfectly by David McTeggart who powered a header home. However, the lead lasted only 10 minutes as Clondalkin hit back twice in quick succession to take a 2-1 advantage into the half-time break.
The second period saw the introduction of two substitutes as Tadhg O’Brien and Sanele Duma got their opportunity to make an impact and Drogheda duly levelled on the hour mark.
The strike by Santos would have graced any ground in the country, but five minutes later Clondalkin restored their lead and even though they had a player sent off with 15 minutes to go Drogheda couldn’t find a way through.
Duma had a last-gasp opportunity to equalise but slipped at the vital moment.
Reflecting on the result, Horgan said: ‘We lost this game in the first half unfortunately. Nothing really happened for the first 20 minutes - then we scored with a well-executed set piece. Then two individual errors led to both of Clondalkin goals before the break.
‘We changed things around at half-time and brought on two subs and changed our shape as well, which gave us more options going forward.
‘Our second goal was one of the best individual goals I have seen in a long, long time, scored by Emmanuel Santos who was excellent on the night and didn’t deserve to be on the losing team.
‘To be honest I thought we would go on and win the game from there, but again we conceded a soft goal from open play and although they had a player sent off we just couldn’t find a way through.
‘The second-half performance deserved at least a point, but we need to cut out the mistakes and get back to keeping clean sheets.’
Town would like to thank JP Egan from the Black Bull for sponsoring the Man of the Match award.
DROGHEDA TOWN: Michal Skryypckak, Nathan Noone Garland, Andy Hickey, David McTeggart, Alan Connor, Daniel Kerr, Neil Donnelly, Barry Kelly, Marty Walsh, Dean Haggins, Emmmanuel Santos. Subs: Evan Reynolds, Harry McCarthy, Kevin Dunne, Sanele Duma, Tadhg O’Brien, Roy Kierans, Alex O’Reilly.