Mills ‘Well pleased with five-star performance
NEWFOUNDWELL made light of more managerial upheaval to register their second win of the season as they proved much too strong for Duleek at DIFE on Friday.
Danny Gartland, who had left the club during the summer and then made a brief comeback, stepped aside for a second time following the home defeat by Muirhevnamor the weekend before last, and so Ray Mills was in sole charge for the visit of Duleek.
The ‘Well, hoping to bounce back from rare consecutive defeats, hit the front after 15 minutes thanks to a Paddy O’Boyle header from a corner, and they doubled their advantage with a Dean Carolan penalty after James Burke had clipped one of their players.
Duleek, though, weren’t about to roll over, and after missing two good opportunities from a corner kicks they made their third such set-piece count in the 32nd minute
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with a Paul Martin glancing header. Martin went from hero to zero, however, inside five minutes as he pushed over Paddy O’Boyle in frustration after being fouled by the defender and got himself sent off.
‘Well restored their two-goal cushion shortly after with a strike from Brandon Sullivan.
With no direct replacement for departed centre-half Martin on the bench, Duleek boss Pete Brennan took the decision to keep two forwards on, believing his team could still cause problems, and for a while in the second half they pressed strongly. However, the goal they needed to make things a bit nervous in the latter stages never materialised and the Drogheda men rubbed salt in their wounds with two further goals, scored by Shaun Bannon and Ryan Connor. Both were of the soft variety as Duleek lost possession in trying to play their way out of defence, but nevertheless they were well taken.
The result moves Mills’ men up the table and away from danger for now, but Duleek remain pointless after three games and face a huge battle to retain their Premier status.
Their manager Pete Brennan, trying his best to sound optimistic, commented: ‘We’ll just have to buck up and work harder. Hopefully we can still get out of trouble.’ NEWFOUNDWELL: Ronan Byrne, Gaz Smith, Paddy O’Boyle, Kevin Bull (Jason O’Boyle), Adam O’Connor, Ryan Connor, Dean Carolan, Eoin Mulroy, Brandon Sullivan, Shaun Bannon (Adam Brady), Alan Wilton (Craig O’Connor).
DULEEK: Adam Byrne, Chris McDonnell, Eric Brown, Paul Martin, Gary Nugent, Sean Kennedy, Robbie Daly (Morgan Brown), James Burke (Mark Kelly), Cormac McGroggan, Barry Kavanagh (Jordan Duffy), Karl Dyas (Peter Hangurbadzo).