16th April 2010

Drogheda United v Shamrock Rovers

Match Report

Drogs 0 Shamrock Rovers 2

The end result certainly didn't reflect the closeness of this match, given that Gary Twigg scored Rovers' second goal deep into injury time. Even though the Drogs can count themselves unlucky not to have taken a point, the simple fact is that we again came away pointless from a game in which were in contention right until the last minute.

We had a late change when Jamie Harris pulled up in the warm-up, Eoghan Osbourne was not fit and with Brendan McGill still on the injured list, Corie Treacy (thankfully fully recovered from the injury sustained in the Dundalk match) came in at left full back. Joe Kendrick and Alan McNally formed a good defensive partnership in the middle and we were set up to absorb the early pressure from Rovers and this we did, so for most of the first half the game was played in our half and we didn't get much of a chance to break forward. But we looked good and Treacey did well at left back and while Rivers had plenty of territorial advantage, they did not create any clearcut chances and their corners by former Drog Chambers were mostly floated perfectly onto the heads of our defenders.

Glen Fitz and John Flood tried hard up front, but were mostly restricted to chasing long balls out of defence which, on the most part, were not delivered accurately. That said, it was a good overall performance in the first half and in spite of absorbing plenty of pressure, we were in good shape going in at half-time.

And, as happened last week against Pats, we tried to raise our game in the second half, but got caught with a goal out of the blue from Rovers just five minutes in, when Bayly exploited a big hole down the middle to lob a great shot over Paul Murphy's head for the lead goal.

From then on, we were trying to get back into the game, but Rovers had clearly done their homework and kept us well shackled in central midfield, where we were denied any space. But we pressed well and just on the hour, the hard-working Glen Fitzpatrick who was closely marked throughout, shot just wide from a good position. On 72 Joe Kendrick saw a brilliantly taken free just graze the top of the bar. John Flood headed over just after that and as time pressed on, it looked increasingly like it would not be our night. Ryan Brennan replaced Robbie Martin with 10 minutes to go and Jamie Duffy replaced Mick Daly with a minute to go, but it was not to be our night, and the tin hat was put on proceedings when Gary Twigg scored just before the final whistle. We never said this was going to be easy - off to UCD on Monday for the Leinster Senior Cup- not much time to dwell on things.

Team: Murphy, Brian King, Corey Treacy, Joe Kendrick, Alan McNally, Mick Daly (Jamie Duffy 89), John Flood, Garreth O'Connor, Glen Fitzpatrick, Robbie Martin (Ryan Brennan 80)

Subs not used: Paul Skinner, Eric McGill, Damian Brennan