23rd April 2010

Galway United v Drogheda United

Match Report

Airtricity League of Ireland
Galway 3 Drogs 1

The Drogs suffered their second consecutive away defeat in this bizarre match at Terryland, which was marred by an injury to Mick Daly. Galway scored in the first minute, Mick injured his finger in the 16th minute and was forced to wait in vain on the sideline waiting for a doctor. We were forced to bring on Ryan Brennan as a sub for Daly after 21 minutes, conceding the second goal on 24, with Daly still waiting for attention. And it did'nt get better from there.

With our growing injury list, Manager Mathews was forced to plan without Eoghan Osbourne, Glen Fitzpatrick, Damien Brennan, Robbie Martin and Paul Crowley, and Darragh McNamara, and it is to be hoped that Daly's injury is not too serious with our away trip to UCD coming up on Monday. As if this was not enough, Eric McGill's second half sending-off rules him out for Monday. The injury list saw Derek Kierans, Colm Smith and Paul Matondo coming onto the bench from the A league team.

Paul Murphy continued in goal with King, Treacy, McNally and Kendrick at the back and the game was hardly a minute old when Galway broke down the right and the resultant shot from the edge of the box on the right looped into the top corner of the net for either a great or a lucky goal, but a goal it was and as we fought back to try and get a grip on things, it was unfortunate that Mick Daly's injury saw us perhaps understandably lose some concentration and concede a second in the 24th when we lost the ball on the left.

So, it was 2-0 to the home side at half time,and we felt that we could work our way back into the game if we just tightened things up a bit, but Galway scored their third on 51 and Eric McGill was sent off a minute later and even though we scored a good goal from a Corey Treacy header on 56, it was all over bar the shouting. The midfield of Gareth O'Connor, the McGills and Ryan Brennan tried hard, as did Flood and Duffy up front, but a combination of the Daly injury and good work by the home side frustrated us.

Visiting supporters felt that McGill's sending off was harsh, but the player was a bit over-enthusiastic with his tackle and the end result is that we are a player short for Monday. Not an evening to remember, but it's off to UCD on Monday in search of precious points.

Team: Murphy, King, McNally, Kendrick, Treacy, B. McGill, E. McGill, O'Connor, Daly (Brennan 21 - Harris replaced Brennan on 83), Duffy (Colm Smith 77 ) , John Flood.
Subs not used: Skinner, Matondo, Kierans.