Boys have the ‘Beat’ing of Portmarnock

ALAN Beattie’s extra-time strike settles this Under-16 Neville Cup tie as Drogheda Boys squeezed through to the semi-finals at Paddy’s Hill on Sunday afternoon.

The game, a repeat of last year’s semi-final which also went to extra time, was delayed by a number of weeks owing to bad weather, but the Boynesiders took just two minutes to stamp their authority as Beattie broke up play in midfield and played through Frank McClean who shot past the advancing Portmarnock goalkeeper.

The midfield trio of Beattie, Taju Adigun and Josh Talabi were pressing high and not giving the hosts time to settle and that pressure was to pay off again on 22 minutes when Darren Fanning peeled away from the opposing centre-half to receive a pass from Beattie and fire to the net to make it 2-0 to Drogheda.

The Boynesiders were disciplined in their approach and not letting Portmarnock settle, but on 37 minutes a ball across the 18-

PORTMARNOCK DROGHEDA BOYS 2 3

yard area cannoned off the hand of a Drogheda player. and from the resulting penalty the home side pulled one back - 2-1 at the break.

The second half saw Portmarnock push on and continue to put pressure on the away side, but Boys goalkeeper Jamie Casserly was immense in cutting out the attacking threat from the through-ball.

However, on 70 minutes the incessant pressure from Portmarnock saw them cut through the Drogheda defence and level it up at 2-2.

Drogheda were on the back foot at that stage, but led by Sean Collier at the back, Beattie in the middle and Fanning leading the line, they dug in and refused to let their heads drop.

With a couple of minutes to go in normal time Drogheda broke away, but the Portmarnock keeper was equal to the task on that occasion, the 80 minutes were now up and the tie was destined for extra time.

When play resumed Drogheda went at it from the start and in just the second minute of extra time Aaron Lawler was put through from midfield and tried to round the keeper, only to be pulled down, resulting in a penalty to Drogheda/

Up stepped captain Beattie to calmly send the keeper the wrong way and put Drogheda back into the lead - 3-2.

Portmarnock tried to fight back and they threw everything at Drogheda, twice going close with shots which just went over the bar, but Drogheda finished as they had started - attacking the Portmarnock goal - when the final whistle was blown.

DROGHEDA BOYS: Jamie Casserly, Sean Collier, Shane Campbell, Hugh McClean, Alan Beattie, Chris Darga, Taju Adigun, Frank McClean, Aaron Lawler, Ciaran Kinsella, Ciaran Keating, Darren Fanning, Josh Talabi, Terence Tiertcbu, David Chrobocinski.