‘Very tough to win it now’

DROGHEDA United are effectively in last-chance saloon in terms of their First Division title aspirations as they prepare to host bottom club Wexford behind closed doors on Friday night (kick-off 7.45).

Following the postponement of the Boynesiders’ game away to Galway United last week due to two Covid-19 positive tests in the Galway camp, Bray Wanderers took full advantage by beating Shamrock Rovers II to extend their lead at the summit to five points.

Even though Drogheda have three games remaining to Bray’s two, the task of overhauling the Seagulls now looks more difficult and that home defeat by Athlone Town last time out could turn out to be extremely costly.

Nevertheless, manager Tim Clancy should have his team fired up for what is effectively a must-win game and three points would certainly put significant pressure on Bray. It would also give Drogheda the opportunity to return to the top of the table - albeit with a game more played - next Tuesday which is the rescheduled date for their fixture in Galway.

‘We slipped up against Athlone and Bray have won a couple of game since, so it’s going to be very tough now to win the league,’ admitted Clancy, speaking before training yesterday (Monday).

‘You’re thinking, if you want to win the league then we have to win every game and see where it takes us.

‘It was 0-0 at half-time down in Wexford [Drogheda ended up winning 3-0], they are a lot fitter than they were in the last couple of years and it will be a difficult game. If we’re not at it we’re not going to win.’

Clancy will be looking for a big response from his players who have had a fortnight to lick their wounds following that shock 2-0 reverse at the hands of Athlone.

‘It was one of those games when seven or eight of our players were under par,’ the manager reflected. ‘I don’t think players were snatching at chances. It was just one of those games where lads needed an extra touch and when they did that they were losing possession, and anything they tried wasn’t coming off.

‘Myself and Kevin [Doherty] looked at it to see if we could have done anything different, but really it was poor, two poor goals we conceded.

‘In my three years at Drogheda it was the most frustrating game I’ve seen.’

However, with Richie O’Farrell suspended for this fixture and Jordan Adeyemo ruled out as he recovers from an operation to remove his appendix, Clancy doesn’t envisage wholesale changes.

‘It’s not like lads were being lazy,’ he said. ‘They’re a very good group who had an off day, so there could be a few changes but nothing drastic.

‘We gave them the long weekend off because there was no point bringing them in with no game.

‘They’ve had a lot of games recently and fitness is not an issue, so we’ll go again tonight.’

Bray’s penultimate game, which is their rearranged fixture away to Galway, will be played on Saturday the 24th, when Drogheda aren’t in action. Indeed, it will be a standalone fixture that weekend.

All final-round games, including Drogheda’s fixture away to Cabinteely, will now take place on Tuesday 27th.

The knock-on effect of the Covid-related postponed games involving Galway and Premier Division club St Patrick’s Athletic is that the play-off series has also had to be put back and will now start on Saturday 31st.

The First Division Play-off Final is scheduled for Friday November 6th and the Promotion/Relegation decider for Saturday November 14th. Unlike previous years, all those matches will be played over one leg only.

Having come up just short in the play-offs in each of the last two years, Drogheda United will be anxious to avoid that circuitous journey to promotion if at all possible, but if they can’t beat Wexford on Friday then the Boynesiders are surely heading for yet another battle via the back door route.