Tenacious Boys put it up to Shelbourne Academy
SHELBOURNE ACADEMY DROGHEDA BOYS 1 1
DARREN Fanning’s second-half strike secured a well-deserved point for Drogheda Boys Under-16s against Shelbourne Academy at the AUL on Sunday.
On an excellent pitch and in fine weather conditions, both sides had the opportunity to play good football and Drogheda started brightly. However the first chance of the game on five minutes was to fall to Shelbourne and only for a last-ditch goal-line clearance by Shane Campbell the hosts would have broken the deadlock.
Drogheda used this let-off to up their game, and with the midfield trio of Alan Beattie, Taju Adigun and Chris Darga prominent they took the game to Shelbourne.
The back four, marshalled by Sean Collier, were first to the breaking ball and snuffed out the threat of the Shelbourne forward line, and when they won the ball it was played out and invariably found a Drogheda player going forward. However, despite a number of attacking runs on the flanks by Aaron Lawler and Frank McClean the home defence were equal to the task at hand.
Then on 35 minutes a Shelbourne attack saw them break through on the right side and their forward subsequently slid the ball by the advancing Drogheda keeper to put his side ahead.
The second half began with Drogheda pushing on and Fanning was causing mayhem with his powerful and direct running.
The Boys were slowly getting a foothold on the game and their pressure was beginning to tell.
And from one of a series of corners in the 64th minute Adigun whipped over the cross for Fanning who fired to the Shels net.
Drogheda kept pressing on and with three minutes remaining Fanning was denied by the Shelbourne defence and from the rebound Darga’s shot from within the six-yard box was also cleared.
In the end Drogheda were deserving of their point, having produced performances in every area of the pitch which were resolute and tenacious.
DROGHEDA BOYS: Jamie Casserly, Josef Bergin, Sean Collier, Shane Campbell, Hugh McClean, Alan Beattie, Chris Darga, Taju Adigun, Frank McClean, Aaron Lawler, Ciaran Kinsella, Ciaran Keating, Darren Fanning, Josh Talabi. Under-15
Sunday March 4th Under-11 Metropolitan Girls
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