League clash the priority in double date with Shels
PART one of Drogheda United’s double header against Shelbourne goes ahead in Tolka Park tonight (Tuesday), but the EA Sports Cup second-round tie lies a distant second in terms of importance to Friday’s league clash at United Park.
Both Tim Clancy and his Shels counterpart Owen Heary are likely to rest a number of key players for various reasons, ahead of the top-of-the-table showdown between two of the league’s form teams.
Saturday’s 5-1 win in Cobh saw Drogheda regain second spot in the table at Shels’ expense, 24 hours after Heary’s men had an impressive 2-0 victory over Galway, and in David O’Sullivan they possess the First Division’s top scorer with 10 goals.
Ahead of the league meeting, Clancy will be wary of possible injuries and is also keen to give some fringe players a run, as he did in the previous round against St Mochta’s.
‘We have played quite a young team in the League Cup, with the likes of Eoin McPhillips, and we have Jordan Adeyemo and Leo Tang as well, and that’s what we’re about. We want to bring players through our underage system,’ said Clancy, speaking on Monday afternoon.
‘We will see how the lads are feeling [at training on Monday night]. It was a tough game in Cobh and a difficult pitch to play on and we will make the changes that are needed.
‘We have a lot of players on our bench who would get into a lot of starting teams in this league and if they play in the League Cup they have an opportunity to get into the team [for Friday].
‘The intensity they’ve been training at and the way they have conducted themselves has been very good and we’re not a team that sticks with the same XI every week.
‘It’s a big opportunity, with a chance to play Derry in the new Brandywell in the next round.’
Looking beyond the EA Sports Cup tie to Friday’s visit of Shels in the league, Clancy responded: ‘It will be a very good game. They have a lot of good players and we’ll have to be at our best to get a good result.
‘We have watched Shelbourne on a couple of occasions this season and we saw them on Friday when they had a really good result against Galway.
‘They obviously have history in regards to winning leagues in years gone by and I used to go and watch Shelbourne play when I was young in the era when Dessie Baker had just come back from England and Stephen Geoghegan was playing.’
Win or lose on Friday, Clancy said the match wouldn’t define Drogheda’s season as it’s only the ninth of 27 regular league games.
‘We will look at things after the summer break and then look again after the second round of games to see where we are.
‘People can say what they want from the outside looking in and if they start saying we’re in contention for promotion then it’s a compliment to the players who are performing.
‘But we won’t be saying that. We know where we are at, that it’s a transitional period. We just want to be competitive in every game we play and if we can do that hopefully we’ll be in the mix for the play-offs come the end of the season.’
Once again Drogheda went to town on weaker opposition last weekend as four goals in eight remarkable first-half minutes steered them towards a straightforward win in Cobh, and Clancy was full of praise for their positive approach to the game.
‘I try and get them to be as ruthless as possible when it’s on and it gives us plenty of confidence,’ he said, ‘but against Longford we had a couple of chances where their keeper made great saves and we know it’s not realistic to score lots of goals in every game.
‘But the players have been brilliant in every game so far.’
Both this week’s matches against Shelbourne will have a 7.45pm kick-off, with extra time and penalties if necessary in the cup game,
•Drogheda United have been drawn away to Monaghan-Cavan in the National Under-15 Cup, while the Under-17 and 19 teams have both been given first-round byes in their cup competitions.
We have a lot of players on our bench who would get into a lot of starting teams in this league and if they play in the League Cup they have an opportunity to get into the team