Goals galore in Town cup tie
COLLINSTOWN DROGHEDA TOWN 5 3
LEINSTER Senior League club Drogheda Town recovered from a 6-1 mauling at the hands of Collinstown four nights earlier to give them an excellent game in Friday’s Kevin Nugent Cup first-round tie.
Despite taking the lead through Marty Walsh in Monday’s league outing against the title favourites in Drogheda, the Marian Park side eventually lost 6-1, with both their new goalkeeper Aaron Shanahan and his replacement Alex Reilly suffering injuries.
On Friday, though, it was a different story as Town gave a much better account of themselves, despite conceding two soft goals to go in trailing 2-0 at the break.
Early in the second period the visitors pulled a goal back when Dale Harding squeezed past two defenders on the right wing and crossed from the byeline for Jordan Harmon to head home. Then the excellent Dean Haggins made a great ball-winning tackle and subsequently put Harding through oneon-one to level the tie at 2-2.
Town had chances to take the lead shortly after that, but in the end the match went to extra time and a goal in each half restored Collinstown’s comfortable advantage at 4-2.
A badly depleted Town pulled another goal back through one of their Under-18s, substitute Dean Clarke, who was making his first-team debut on the night.
But as the visitors chased an equalising goal Collinstown caught them on the break to secure their place in the next round.
Drogheda now turn their attentions back to matters in the Leinster Senior League’s Major Sunday division, where the onetime promotion contenders now look likely to finish in mid-table after taking just one point out of nine from their last three games. DROGHEDA TOWN: SOCCER
SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION
WORK on installing brand-new floodlights at United Park began yesterday (Monday) and should be completed by next week as Drogheda United and the FAI take decisive action to avoid a repeat of last Friday’s farcical scenes on the opening night of the season.
Drogs chairman Fiachra Kierans has defended the club’s handling of the sorry affair, insisting it was the FAI’s responsibility as owners of the ground to deal with the issue of inadequate floodlighting which caused the postponement of the game against Finn Harps.
However, he accepted that the club were taking a risk in not acting themselves to replace a few of the missing bulbs, knowing that the new floodlighting system wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season.
Kierans had told this newspaper a fortnight ago that the work was due to be done in the first week of March and the decision had been taken not to replace any bulbs in the meantime.
Four pre-season games at United Park proceeded without difficulty, including one refereed by FIFA official Neil Doyle, but last Friday’s referee John McLoughlin took a hardline approach and called off the match, pointing out that the centre circle area was particularly dark.
Spectators were eventually told of the postponement eight minutes after the game was due to kick off, to loud boos from angry supporters - mainly from the visiting Finn Harps contingent who had made the long trip from Donegal.
That left chairman Kierans in the firing line, but he sought to defend the club from criticism.
‘We had flagged to the FAI and they were working with us,’ he said. ‘ We have brand new floodlights coming in and we have played all our pre-season friendlies under these lights without an issue.
‘We knew it was going to be tight and I accept the lights aren’t great. They’re 20 years old and they’re full of water and two of them actually came on of their own volition after the game had been called off.
‘But there was very little point spending €8,000 on bulbs for the sake of three weeks and it’s their [FAI] responsibility at the end of the day.
‘They had taken full responsibility for it. They were organising the new lights to go in, we’ve had the contractors in and all the paperwork signed, sealed and delivered and all they have to do is turn up and start.
‘But I’m happy that the FAI pushed it on as quickly as they could have done. The work is partially funded by the FAI and the rest by a Sports Capital Grant which had to be applied for and the work put out to tender.’
Kierans felt the game could have gone ahead but stopped short of criticising referee McLoughlin.
‘I’m not knocking him. At the end of the day if it’s the referee’s prerogative and if he’s acting in the best interests of players then I can’t really argue or quibble with him.
‘If it was a rainy night I would say absolutely [call it off], but if he felt it was an issue when the players were warming up why not call it then?
‘I’m disappointed he left it so late. If he’d called this off at 6 o’clock we could have caught Harps and supporters when they were a wee bit down the road. It’s a good old haul back to Ballybofey and I’ve been that soldier in reverse and I know what it’s like.
‘In fairness to Finn Harps they were very gracious. They understand that’s not an issue we could control. It’s not a floodlight failure.
‘It’s the first match of the season, we had a great crowd in and the enthusiasm was there and it just knocks you back a little bit.
‘But we’ll lick our wounds and come back and fight another day.’
Pressed on how bad the circumstances of the postponement looked in terms of Drogheda United’s credibility, the FAI’s role notwithstanding, the chairman was defiant.
‘I don’t see how it could in any way be embarrassing for the club. A - we are not the owners of the ground, B - we’re not the ones responsible for the floodlights. We have followed procedure the whole way through.
‘If we had played and a player broke his leg, then the public perception would be ‘why did you play under the gammy floodlights?’.
‘As far as the public are concerned, we are in a no-win situation, I understand that. I understand the disappointment of the fans and if someone has to take the blame for it I’m quite happy to accept that responsibility.
‘But I am happy that on behalf of the club we followed procedure and we kept everybody in the loop and it wasn’t our decision.’