Doherty: We’re not safe yet
KEVIN Doherty is warning his Drogheda United side to halt their recent slide or else find themselves hauled into the relegation dogfight.
Friday’s 2-0 home defeat to 10-man St Patrick’s Athletic followed on the same margin of defeat at Sligo Rovers to leave Drogheda nervously peering over their shoulders at UCD and Finn Harps.
Only two of United’s last six games are at home and manager Doherty wants a reaction when their league campaign resumes at Dundalk on September 30.
“If we keep playing like we did on Friday then we won’t be in no-man’s land,” said Doherty (above).
“I have been saying for weeks that when everyone kept claiming that we are safe that we are not. We still have a good cushion of course over the bottom sides but can we bounce back from the St Pat’s defeat?
“I hope so. It’s only a few weeks since we played so well against Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup and only went out in extra time.
“I was very disappointed with the performance against St Pat’s because we were nowhere near good enough.
Game
“They had a man sent off but I don’t think their keeper Danny Rogers had a save to make in the game. So we did not deserve anything and I thought that St Pat’s were hungrier and fitter than us.
“With them a man down, I felt that at half time that we were in control of our destiny but in the second half we were way off the required levels.
“Then lads didn’t do their jobs for their winner — St Pat’s had two free headers in the box.
“To be fair to the players this has not been like us all season — it was a bad night.”
“When you see his GPS, he does so much explosive stuff the way he plays and we had to be really careful in how we managed him. But you can see he looked back to himself.”
Bradley was also gushing in his praise of Farrugia, who scored his first goals in two years having been dogged by injuries in that time.
“Neil was very good but has been like that for the last eight weeks and had a real impact on the team. I was delighted for him that he got his goals but his all round game, he seems to be right on top of it at the moment.”