MARCUS CAVAROLI
GOALS don’t come around too often for Luke Gallagher and it was especially sweet for the defensive midfielder to score one that really mattered against Galway United on Friday night.
As he closes in on 100 League of Ireland appearances, 63 of those in Drogheda colours, the 23-year-old had only netted once previously, against Waterford in July 2016 - but he burst forward to fire past Tadhg Ryan and secure a point at a time when the Boynesiders were down to 10 men.
‘That’s only my second here, but it’s great to get one, especially in a game like this,’ he commented.
‘Even though it’s early on in the season it’s still a top-ofthe-table clash. To get a point and to show the character we did, down to 10 men, was phenomenal and I couldn’t be prouder of the lads.
‘I have to pay tribute to my fellow Finglas colleague [Stephen Meaney for the assist]. He’s a great young lad who’s come through the youths here and he’s after coming on there and shown what he can do, and he’s probably knocking on the gaffer’s door to get himself in the team.
‘[The other goalscorer] Mark Doyle’s been super since he’s been with us as well. He’s cemented himself into the team and it’s up to him now to keep putting in those performances to keep his place.’
Key to Drogheda’s comeback, Gallagher said, was coming out for the second half on the front foot.
‘We started off a bit slow in the first half. They had about 10 minutes of a good spell and then we actually got on top and had two chances and then they just hit us on the counter.
‘The second one straight after sort of killed us, but in the second half we were straight out of the traps like greyhounds and we just got going from there.
‘We showed some chracter there to come back and regroup and get the goals to get back into it.
‘It was great in the end, especially after getting a man sent off. I don’t know whether it was a red card or not from where I was standing, but the boys are ecstatic because they were up against it, being down to 10. It feels like a win.’
Gallagher agreed that manager Tim Clancy’s substitutions were also important in the overall context of the game, and he felt the goal assist from a throw-in by Colm Deasy prior to his controversial sending-off was reward for increased practice of set pieces.
‘The gaffer is there to make those decisions [on substitutions] and tonight it’s paid off. Well done to him and well done to the personnel who played and came on. Everyone put in a hell of a shift and we can only go on from here.
‘Set pieces are something we didn’t really work on last year too much, but this year we’re working on them a bit and we have a few up our sleeves, so hopefully a couple will come off for us.’
With seven points from their first three games and 16 goals scored, there is more optimism among supporters about the season ahead, but Gallagher sounded a note of caution over any suggestion of mounting a promotion challenge.
‘It’s been a great start, but it’s only three games gone,’ he responded.
‘It’s a long season - we’ve 24 or 25 more games, I don’t know what it is - but it’s like the tortoise and the hare. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.’