20 August 2010

Galway v Drogheda United

Match Report

Airtricity League of Ireland
Galway 2 Drogs 1

This was a game of three penalties, two of which were in Drogs' eyes, very doubtful decisions. You can decide whether it is the luck of the game or bad refereeing, After so many sucessive defeats, it was heartening to witness such a good Drogs display and in truth it was a very disappointed team which left Terryland. We created enough chances in the first half to be 3-0 up and if only they were put away... The team lined out with the defence continuing as last week, but Darren Meenan came in to midfield and Glen Fitzpatrick joined Darragh McNamara up front and it is fair to say that from the start, the football we played was of a high quality and Ryan, Glen and darragh played some good approach work which unfortunately didn't give good results.

After 20, Ossie came off with a dead leg to be replaced by Pete McMahon, with Eric dropping to left back. 0-0 at half time and on 55 Robert Duggan advanced for a through ball and reached the same time as the in-rushing forward, but the ref''s X-ray vision showed him that Robert was at fault and we were 1-0 down from the spot kick. Six minutes later Ryan was clearly taken down and Fitz took the penalty expertly to make it 1-1, A few minutes later pete McMahon missed a great opportunity to give us the lead from a good position and things got worse when he received his second yellow for handball on 76.

As time ran out , it was looking like a draw when again a very doubtful decision against Ryan, who had turned away from the shot of the Galway forward and what part of ball-to-hand the linesman didn't understand is between him and his supervisor, anyway, O'Donnell stroked it away expertly and that was it.

But despite the poor refereeing and linesmaning, this was a good Drogs display with plenty of chances created and good football.

Team: Robert Duggan, Corie Treacy, Alan McNally, Michael Daly, Eoghan Osborne (Peter McMahon, 22), Darren Meenan, Ryan Brennan, Paul Crowley, Eric McGill; Glen Fitzpatrick, Darragh McNamara (John Flood, 69).
Subs not used: Paul Skinner, Jamie Harris, Conor Sinnott.