Full-back Deasy sets lofty targets for teammates
COLM Deasy has set his Drogheda teammates the toughest of targets - to remain undefeated for the rest of the season - after they survived the toughest of tests to finish all square with Shelbourne.
The Boynesiders have now played all the likely promotion contenders, the others being Galway, Finn Harps, UCD and Longford, and have yet to taste defeat, although all five of those games have been at home.
However, Deasy believes his team are capable of keeping up the pressure on leaders UCD if they can keep their feet on the ground in the weeks ahead.
‘I think we are flying at the moment,’ he commented after the Shelbourne game, ‘but we have to keep our heads level and hopefully we can get to the end of the season undefeated.
‘If we can do that it would be a great stat and it should keep us right up there among the top three, so I’m looking forward to the next round of games and seeing how we get on.’
The second phase of matches begins with a trip to Ballybofey this Friday and Deasy acknowledged that Finn Harps would provide a different kind of test on their own patch.
‘It’s different preparation, but I still think we’ll go out and play our own game, as we do every week,’ he said. ‘We don’t change to anyone else’s tactics and we’ll just focus on ourselves and that should give us the edge.
‘We’ve played up there a few times and we’ve mainly won, so hopefully that continues.’
Deasy felt confident he would be fit to start at right-back, despite limping off near the end of the league game against Shelbourne.
‘My calves seized up at the end and I couldn’t move, but I got another knock on Tuesday against Shels as well and was lucky enough to be even in there.
‘I’ve just taken that many knocks on my calf that I can barely raise my leg now, but I’ll be fit for Friday.’
Deasy was involved in both the goals in the Shelbourne match but wasn’t too despondent about the eventual outcome despite conceding the equaliser in the 84th minute.
‘It was a good result in the end,’ he said. ‘We didn’t have much of the ball, but we got the goal and then they got a lucky shot, a little deflection off my arm - it took the hairs off my arm and went in. I couldn’t believe it.
‘With 80 minutes gone when you’re leading, you feel the game should be over, but they threw the kitchen sink at us, so what can you do. It was a battle the whole way through.
‘It was in the box, I think [for our penalty]. I just seen Seanie [Brennan] and asked him to put the ball over to me because your man on the wing wasn’t up for marking me.
‘I had signalled to him earlier in the game and he looked for me but missed it. The second one he got me and I got it back across and lucky enough Doyler was smart enough to take a touch and take the tackle as well.
‘Sean Brennan’s taken over from Sean Thornton and keeping the no-penalties-missed alive. Seanie Thornton never missed one and now Sean is taking them and hopefully he’ll take them from now on.’
One aspect of the game Deasy felt Drogheda could learn from concerned Shelbourne’s loan striker David O’Sullivan who was influential in the game throughout, although starved of clear scoring chances.
‘The way they play, they seem to get very far forward, they press the ball and get it up there to O’Sullivan up top,’ said Deasy.
‘He holds it up and he’s ratty enough and I don’t think the lads worked him enough. They could have played around the keeper and in between the centre-halves and tired him out, but we’ll leave that for another day!’