Drogheda looking for home comforts
THE holiday is well and truly over for the Drogheda United squad as they face into a critical week in the First Division promotion race.
Having picked up just a single point from three tough away fixtures before the summer break, the Boynesiders will be desperate to return to winning ways when they host Cobh Ramblers on Friday (kick-off 7.45pm).
With two more games against their promotion rivals looming next - home to Finn Harps and away to Shelbourne - Drogheda need a morale-boosting victory to hang on to second place in the table and maintain hopes of catching UCD at the top.
Interestingly, the club have cut a deal with Drogheda Institute of Further Education to train twice a week on their excellent all-weather facility and manager Tim Clancy welcomed the development.
‘We’ll still do a session in Ashbourne on Thursdays, but we’re up in DIFE on Mondays and Wednesdays and it’s good to get the training back in Drogheda,’ he said. ‘Hopefully we can branch out from there and do more to improve our relations with the community.’
Matches after the summer break can be difficult to predict as teams sometimes find it hard to hit the ground running again, but Clancy insisted his squad would be well prepared come Friday evening.
‘We will be tuned in and we have the advantage of being [close to] Dublin with more choice of players, whereas it can be difficult for [Cobh manager] Stephen Henderson to entice players to travel all the way down to Cobh.
‘His hands have been tied with the budget and players leaving, but they’ll be disappointed with where they’re sitting in the league and we know it’s going to be a tough game.’
It’s surely last-chance saloon on Friday from The Rams’ perspective, with victory a must if they to have any chance of dragging themselves into the promotion race. However, the fact that they have scheduled a friendly at home to Aberdeen on Saturday afternoon and another against Preston North End in mid-July points to a club more focused on trying to bring in a few extra quid.
Complacency, though, is a danger and EA Sports Cup semi-finalists Cobh, who actually have a better record away from home this season, are well capable of nicking a goal and then defending as if their lives depend on it.
Given that they’ve taken seven points out of nine from their last three fixtures - wins over Athlone and Wexford and a draw against Galway - they should certainly stiffer opposition than when the Drogs won 5-1 at St Colman’s Park back in April.
As we went to press, Drogheda were awaiting the weekly suspensions list, with Sean Brennan, Jake Hyland and Lee Duffy all close to having to serve one-match bans, while in addition Conor Kane looks set to miss the Cobh game through injury, having been absent from the 1-0 defeat by Longford last Friday week.
‘Conor had a scan on his knee and there’s no long-term damage, so he should be back training this week, but the Cobh game could be too soon for him,’ the manager reported.
In terms of strengthening his squad, Clancy is still open to bringing in one or two new faces and club chairman Fiachra Kierans has indicated that some funds are available for that purpose.
‘We will see if there is anything we can afford,’ the manager responded.
‘We would like to try and improve the squad, but we have to make sure it’s the right players to fit in with the group. They’re doing great and before the season we would certainly have taken second place going into the summer break, so we won’t be making too many wholesale changes.’
Pressed on what position he is prioritising, Clancy said: ‘A different type of attacking player, with a more physical presence.’
The stats confirm that the goals have dried up to an extent, with just nine scored in Drogheda’s last nine league games, and someone of UCD forward Georgie Kelly’s calibre would certainly give an added dimension to the Boynesiders’ attack. However, Kelly appears to be bound for Dundalk and whether another target man of his ilk is available and willing to come to Drogheda United is another matter.
As things stand, the Drogs have still tallied 37 goals from 17 games - second only to UCD and well ahead of Finn Harps and Galway United - with Mark Doyle (8 goals in all competitions), Sean Brennan (7) and Chris Lyons (6) leading the scoring charts.