Former Shels boss Doherty plotting his old club’s downfall
HE won three league titles with Shelbourne as a player and managed them as well, but this week Drogheda United assistant boss Kevin Doherty is plotting to condemn them to a sixth consecutive year in the First Division.
The 38-year-old Dubliner will take charge of the dugout for both legs of the 4th v 3rd play-off tie as manager Tim Clancy and director of football Dave Robertson complete four-match bans, with United Park the venue this Friday before the deciding leg in Tolka Park next Monday.
The prize for the winners is a play-off semi-final against Finn Harps and Drogheda are of course bidding for an immediate return to the top flight, but the well-worn cliche ‘one game at a time’ definitely applies here.
The first two league meetings with Shelbourne both ended in 1-1 draws, with Sean Brennan netting from the penalty spot on each occasion, while Brennan won the second game in Tolka Park with a stunning 90th-minute free kick, and this latest joust looks too close to call.
Doherty certainly expects nothing to be decided on Friday and any sort of victory would put Drogheda in a strong position going into the second leg.
‘To win 5-0 would be a good result!’ Doherty joked when asked what result he would settle for from United Park.
‘I can’t see it not being close and it won’t be settled on Friday either way, but I suppose a decent result would be going to Tolka with a lead.
‘They finished ahead of us in the table, but they haven’t beaten us - apart from in the League Cup - and we’ve beaten them and it’s very difficult to pick a favourite.
‘The two games are going to be exciting, hopefully for us, and this is what the play-offs are all about. Hopefully we’ve got another six games to go.’
The two teams’ preparations for the play-off have been very different, with Drogheda focusing entirely on training, while Shelbourne defeated St Pat’s 6-5 on penalties following a 1-1 draw after extra time in last Friday’s Leinster Senior Cup Final.
Shels fielded a strong team in that match, and with a full week to recover it might stand to them, especially having picked up some silverware.
Doherty, who was in the crowd along with manager Clancy, said: ‘I wouldn’t say we had a down week, but we didn’t go mad. With no game, we just trained and it was a good week.
‘We had a couple of players with knocks and wanted to give them time to recover, and we have a fully fit squad now who are looking forward to it.
‘Shelbourne played very well in that match. We know them quite well - I know them very well - but we saw a couple of things we’ll be looking to work on.’
Asked for his thoughts about taking charge of the Drogs against his former club, Doherty responded: ‘I have a great feeling for the club still and it’s a big one, but we have to do our jobs and I’ll do mine.
‘There was not the investment there when I was managing them that there is now and you can see that from the players they signed in the window. We wouldn’t have had that investment and there was no pressure on us to bounce back up, and the fact we’ve still in with a shout of going back up in the first year - we won’t need to get the lads up for it.
‘Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd because it does make a difference.’
Both matches kick off at 7.45pm and away goals don’t count double in the play-offs.