MARCUS CAVAROLI
THE Leinster Senior Cup has never brought out the best in Drogheda United teams and last Thursday it was abundantly clear that the provincial trophy doesn’t top their wish list for 2018 either.
In a quite dreadful game at a bitterly cold United Park the Boynesiders and their counterparts from the Leinster Senior League were unable to conjure a goal even after extra time - but Drogheda did eventually progress on penalty kicks, winning their first match in this competition since 2010.
Other positives manager Tim Clancy can take are that his team kept a clean sheet for the first time, 120 minutes on a heavy pitch will certainly bring on his players’ fitness and a couple of the club’s Under-19s got a welcome run in the first team.
Ollie Horgan, whose Finn Harps team are Drogheda’s first league opponents this Friday, certainly called it right when he opted to watch the Boynesiders in their previous pre-season game against Bray, for he would have learned nothing from this instantly forgettable fixture.
Five likely starters for the Division 1 opener were left on the bench, while many of those who did feature didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory against a very moderate Bangor team.
The usual bite in the tackle simply wasn’t there and it was clear that players were anxious about picking up injuries in a competition that carries little significance in the overall scheme of things.
That said, there were some encouraging signs in the early play as Jake Hyland volleyed just over the bar and Colm Deasy sent a 25-yard piledriver narrowly wide, before 17-year-old winger Jordan Adeyemo pulled an ambitious shot across goal.
On the half-hour mark Richie Purdy swung an excellent free kick into the six-yard area, but neither Stephen Meaney nor Sean Trimble managed to get the slightest of touches needed to glance the ball past Bangor keeper Adriano Varnier.
The visitors did threaten on a couple of occasions as Gary Deans fired straight into the arms of Paul Skinner and Luke Synnott sent angled shots wide twice in the space of a minute.
On the restart Bangor’s David Kennedy hit a powerful longrange effort straight at Skinner and their captain Laurence Dunne fired over the bar as two Drogheda defenders closed him down. BANGOR CELTIC: REFEREE: