Kane penalty bid backfires as he misses key game

WATERFORD players were involved in some good natured banter with Conor Kane after the final whistle on Friday night, joking about his futile attempt to win a stoppage-time penalty for Drogheda.

The teenager took it all in his stride but deep down he admitted regrets about his split-second decision to go down in the box, resulting in a booking from referee Robert Harvey.

‘It was very silly. The fact I got a yellow card for dissent the previous week, I’m missing the Longford game now because of a stupid yellow card. It’s very frustrating.

‘I thought [Dave] Webster was going to nip in with a foot there and I tried to move my foot towards his - I was chancing my arm.

‘But we do take some consolation from running them close. We just need to bring that sort of performance level into the last three games. UCD, Longford and Cobh are obviously the three biggest games of the season now, so we just have to focus on them.’

This Friday’s game at home to UCD would see the Students crowned First Division champions if they beat Drogheda and Finn Harps failed to overcome Galway United, but that prospect gives Kane, for one, added incentive to go out and produce a performance similar to the one that knocked Shamrock Rovers out of the FAI Cup in the first round.

‘We just can’t let them win the league here. That would be the biggest downer of the season after we beat them here earlier in the season as well. We came close to them [in the league table], but in some games we’ve just let it slip.

‘We just need to give it a good bash and see what happens.’

Pressed on why Drogheda had struggled to put enough points on the board in recent weeks, Kane responded: ‘It’s not even bad performances, just silly little mistakes that are catching us out.

‘But every big game we’ve played - apart from UCD away - we’ve played really well and dominated games and taken points out of most of them.

‘The exception was the one defeat here against Finn Harps where we battered them and they got a last-minute goal.’

Despite leading the table for the first few weeks of the season and staying in the top four throughout, Drogheda are far from certain of securing a play-off spot and Kane agreed that a fifth-place finish would be disastrous after all the work the squad had put in this year.

‘It would be the biggest downer of my career so far,’ he responded.

‘We’ve played really well all year and they’re such a great bunch of lads - unbelievable - but I think we’ll be alright. We’ve too many good players - young and experienced - not to do the job.

‘We just want to get the job done first, but getting to the play-offs is one thing. We want to push on after that.’

Despite going out of the FAI on Friday, Kane felt that Drogheda shouldn’t be too downhearted.

‘After the goal they didn’t have another shot until the 70th or 80th minute,’ he pointed out.

‘They’re a full-time team going for Europe as well, so I thought we did well. In the first half we were a bit slow starting off, but in the second half we came out of the blocks flying and I thought we gave them a good run for their money.

‘We pinned them back a lot of the time, but they’re a good, experienced side with lads who have played at a good level.’

When the equalising goal wouldn’t go in and the clock began to tick down, did Kane and his colleagues begin to think about conserving energy ahead of the big game with UCD? The response was emphatic.

‘Not in my mind - and I doubt it was on the mind of anyone else,’ said Kane.

‘This team just has the mentality that we just want to win and play for each other. We just focus on the game we’re playing, not the week after and the week after that. It’s just playing the moment.’