Keeper is spot-on in cup clash
MICHAL Skrzypczak was the hero with a second-half penalty save as Drogheda Town held out to defeat Pioneers in the Polikoff Cup at Blackstone Motors Marian Park on Friday night.
This was the Marian Park side’s first home game in six weeks and the hosts set an early tempo that Pioneers couldn’t live with and were 2-0 up inside the first 10 minutes.
Dale Harding opened the scoring after just two minutes with a great individual goal, showing great skill to evaded a couple of challenges down the right side before planting a shot low and hard into the bottom corner.
Pioneers couldn’t get out of their own half in the opening exchanges as Town piled on the pressure in search of a second goal in duly came when the front four players hunted the ball down and put the Pioneers defence under pressure before gaining possession. Then some slick one-touch passing saw the ball fall to Marty Walsh who finished brilliantly.
Emmanuel Santos was unlucky not to see his back-heel enter the net after more good work down the right from Harding, but Pioneers reduced the deficit after 20 minutes with a very good strike from 25 yards out.
For the next twenty minutes both sides created chances, but coming up to halftime it was Drogheda who restored there two-goal cushion. There was great work initially from Santos to win back the ball down the left side and he evaded two challenges and got to the byeline before picking out Andrew Tinley who made a great run across the six-yard box and finished.
Early in the second half Pioneers reduced the deficit back to one goal when they broke the offside trap, rounded Skrzypczak and side-footed home for 3-2.
Pioneers went in search of an equaliser and were now the team on top and with the challenges flying in from both teams there was a melee on the hour mark, after which the referee was happy to dish out one yellow card to each team.
On seventy minutes Pioneers were awarded a penalty and had the chance to tie the game up, but Skrzypczak made a great save with his feet and Town survived.
Manager Robbie Horgan emptied his bench for the last 20 minutes and with five minutes to go a long kickout from the back saw Tinley head on to Dean Smith whose first-time effort forced a good save from the Pioneers keeper.
In the end Town held on for the victory and Horgan said he was delighted with his team’s attitude and work ethic.
‘I felt last week’s performance in the league against Newlands was very good and although we didn’t get the result then I knew it would help us get back on track,’ he said.