Drogs need to learn from stuttering win over Athlone
LAST week’s stuttering victory ctory over rock-bottom Athlone serves as a timely reminder er that Drogheda United can’t bank on earning all three points from their trip to manager-less Wexford this Friday (8pm).
The Boynesiders survived one or two scares to o emerge with a 2-1 win and d manager Tim Clancy (right) ht) agreed that lessons will needeed to be learned, but he certainly isn’t expecting any repeat of what he called the ‘freak’ 8-1 scoreline eline achieved the last time his team visited Ferrycarrig Park back in March.
‘At this stage of the season results are paramount,’ he began, playing down the significance of his team’s disappointing second-half performance against the midlanders.
‘We will say it to them at training during the week and emphasise that if our standards drop by a small percentage then you’ll be punished in this league. We’ll be reiterating the importance of making the right decisions as well.
‘But before the game our goal was to get three points and we achieved that, so you can’t be too critical, especially after the first half when we played really, really well and possibly should have had two or three more goals.
‘You don’t want to take away from the positives by having a rant and then you carry that into the next game.’
Wexford, whose manager Damian Locke left the club by mutual consent the week before last, are still smarting from being deducted points for fielding an ineligible player in a match against Athlone. They have suffered back-to-back 3-0 defeats at the hands of Longford Town and UCD but did win in Cabinteely recently and also held both Galway and Finn Harps to draws on their home patch.
Scoring has been a big problem for them, though, with just one goal in their last six games at Ferrycarrig Park.
Nevertheless, Clancy is affording them due respect and has seen enough to believe that Drogheda could suffer a disastrous defeat if they take victory for granted.
‘I watched them away in Longford on Saturday and were well in the game [at 0-0] until they conceded a goal just after half-time, the manager reported. ‘Longford got a couple more goals late on, but we know what Wexford are capable of. They have a few new faces and I don’t think they will draw much from when we plaplayed them down there before.
‘Hopefully we can put in a performance like the ffirst half of the game againagainst Athlone.’ Clancy is boosted by the return from suspension of Chris Lyons anand it would be a major surprise iif the club’s leading striker didn’t come straight back into the starting line-up.
‘Chris has been huge for us all season with his style of play and energy,’ the manager acknowledged. ‘He holds the ball up and brings other players into play, but Rob Manley came in last week and gave us a different option.
‘They were quite physical at centre-half and he held the ball up pretty well and is probably more of a natural finisher, because every time the ball went into the box he was there in the six-yard area. That’s one of the positives from last Friday.’
Nevertheless, Clancy revealed that he’s still looking to strengthen his attacking options before the transfer window closes next week.
‘We’re hoping maybe to have one or two in this week,’ he said, ‘but with the financial restraints we have it’s difficult to go out and sign players who are going to improve the squad.
‘We have to remember as well that we are where we are because the players we have in the squad have done well.’
With Shelbourne and Longford Town facing each other this week, Drogheda are certain to increase their lead over the fifthplaced team to seven or eight points if they beat Wexford.
The chances of eating into UCD’s five-point advantage at the top by Friday night are pretty slim as the Students face a trip to Athlone Town.
Nevertheless, with just five games to follow after this week, it would take a major collapse for Drogheda not to qualify for the play-offs from such a strong position.
We will say it to them at training during the week and emphasise that if our standards drop by a small percentage then you’ll be punished in this league. We’ll be reiterating the importance of making the right decisions as well. But before the game our goal was to get three points and we achieved that, so you can’t be too critical.