March 5th 2010

Drogheda United v UCD

Match Report

Well, this was a bit of a wakener upper for us in our first league match of 2010. The portents were good, new signings were generally agreed to be astute, we threw a few shapes in the pre-season friendlies and had every confidence in ourselves for the Season ahead. But aspirations and reality sometimes collide.

Bearing in mind that it would take time for the team to bed-in, we started reasonably well. UCD, despite missing some regulars, looked very sharp and in the opening minutes made a few moves down the left which looked dangerous. Our passing in the middle and up front was crisp enough and we moved the ball well out of defence, but the visitors were winning the 50/50 balls and showed superior teamwork from early and only four minutes in their striker seemed to have plenty of time and space but headed over. Shortly after that, the visitors were clean through down the left and with Skinner beaten, striker Kilduff saw his lob came back off the crossbar.

This wakened us up s bit and good holding and distribution by Fitzpatrick saw John Flood head down for Brendan McGill’s shot from 2 yards out to be beaten away by the keeper. There was a period after that where we seemed to be getting a grip in midfield, but every ball was hard fought for and all the half chances we created were snuffed out by a very capable UCD defence, and in truth, we were lucky to go and half time at 0-0.

And we surmised at half-time that Alan’s team talk would do the trick, after all, we had our strongest possible side out............but it was wishful thinking. The second half was almost all one way traffic and all we had to show for our efforts were a couple of frees which were not well used. As we failed to get a grip in midfield, the visitors, showing superior skill, strength and fitness, seemed like they would over-run us at times. Alarming gaps were appearing in the middle and on 60minutes UCD took the lead when Kilduff brushed the defence aside to score the opener and only 5 minutes later an alarming gap in the middle saw a repeat for number two. We brought on Paul Crowley for Robbie Martin in the 63rd minute and Jamie Duffy for Brendan McGill on 73, but to no avail. O’Connor replaced the hardworking Eric McGill (who had the distinction of receiving our first yellow card of the season) on 86 and UCD scored their third right on the final whistle.

Plenty for us to think about, but not much time because we’re away to Pats on Monday night- maybe its better to know what we’re up against now.......and of course, we’ll travel hopefully.

Team: Skinner; Treacy, McNally, Harris, Kendrick; Eric McGill (O’Connor 86), Brendan McGill (Duffy 76), Martin (Crowley 63), Daly; Flood, Fitzpatrick.

Subs Not Used: Murphy, King.