19th April 2010

UCD v Drogheda United

Match Report

Leinster Senior Cup
UCD 2 Drogs 0

The Drogs third consecutive Monday match (this time in the Leinster Senior Cup) ended in a 2-0 defeat in a sparsely-populated Belfield. From a Drogs point of view, this gave manager Mathews a chance to try out players in different positions in preparation for the important trip to Galway on Friday in the final match of Round One of the League. The positives from this match (and there were a few) were the return from injury of Brendan McGill and another great show from Ryan Brennan on the left. Ryan has made great strides over the last few months and is showing some of his team-mates a thing or two. Apart from one player, we faced the UCD 'A' League team which narrowly defeated our own A team 1-0 two Saturdays ago.

The pitch was not conducive to flowing football due to its uneven surface and long grass and on two separate we saw a player from each team fall over when running with the ball !. We started with the same back four as last Friday, Eric McGill in central midfield and Robbie Martin up front with Jamie Duffy. UCD's opening goal came on 21 minutes when our defence parted in the middle (in the same way that we did for Rovers first goal) and allowed the UCD striker plenty of time to pick his spot and give Skinner no chance.

Paul Crowley replaced Eric McGill for the start of the second half and on the hour Garreth O'Connor replaced Mick Daly and we came into the game stronger and at the three-quarter period forced a succession of corners to no avail. UCD scored their second on 78 when we gave away a free on the edge of the box which was expertly curled over the defensive wall and into the net. And that was about it, the real match is Friday in Terryland and, based on our last two league performances, we will travel hopefully.

Team: Skinner, King, Treacy, Kendrick, McNally, E. McGill (Crowley 45), B. McGill, Duffy, Martin (Flood 80), Daly (O'Connor 61), Brennan