26th March 2010
Sporting Fingal v Drogheda United
Match Report
Sporting Fingal 4 - 1 Drogheda United
Well, you can look at this result in a number if ways, depending on your
viewpoint - a second humiliating four-goal defeat for the Drogs or a match
in which we recovered from a goal down, almost took the lead and succumbed
to late goals. Any road up, I suppose the result remains the same no matter
what type of claret-and-blue-hunky-dory-flavoured-glasses through which we
viewed the proceedings.
Our first visit to Santry since Rovers' days there revealed that not much
had changed. Sporting Fingal must be rightly praised for their recent
success, and the dearth of decent grounds is a big difficulty, but the
running track!!! Don't get me started!
With our double sending-off last week against Bohs, we fielded the same
starting eleven as Tuesday last against Pats in the Leinster Senior Cup.
Brian King and Eoghan Osbourne continued at full back and it was our defence
which came under immediate pressure when the home team tried to expose our
perceived weakness on the left. We were only four minutes in when Conan
Byrne whipped a ball across from the right past our static defence and Eamon
Zayed waltzed in to slide it into the goal.
This early goal let us know what we were up against and we started to string
a few passes together and with Glen holding the ball up well, Brendan McGill
started to exploit weaknesses on the left of the home defence. We almost
owned the ball for a while and it was no surprise on 12 minutes when we
equalised when a great Brendan McGill cross was nodded on by Alan McNally to
Robbie Martin who blasted to the net. We continued to pile on the pressure
and only a minute later Robbie Martin shot over with the goal at his mercy.
Garreth O'Connor almost owned the midfield at this stage and we created
another chance on 15 when Martin headed over and in the end these were
missed chances which we were to rue.
On 22 minutes Eoghan Osbourne showed a great turn of speed to tackle Zayed
when our defence were caught square and, as happens in football, on 24 we
failed to close SF down the middle and Finn was given too much space and he
drilled his shot into the corner of the net for the lead goal. From there to
the half time whistle we had a great chance through Eric McGill on 37 and
continued to press without success.
In at half time, we were confident enough that we could probably get a
result, but were caught completely cold a minute into the second half when
Conan Byrne whipped in a great cross from the right which deflected off
Jamie Harris into the net. A minute later, Paul Crowley was unlucky to see
his header from an O'Connor free drift just wide. Mick Daly replaced Eric
McGill on 60, Duffy replaced Robbie Martin on 78 and Ryan Brennan came on
for Brian King on 84, but it was not to be our night and O'Neill added the
foruth on 78.
So, there it is, whatever way you look at it, all we must do now is
concentrate in the next game - home to Sligo - Good Friday with the bar
closed (not like the cultured city of Limerick where the men play that game
with odd shaped balls). But although we lost, there is much to admire in our
play, O'Connor's great midfield play, McGill's good work on the wing, King's
good form etc etc and there is no knowing what we can do with a full squad
on the pitch.
Team: Skinner, King (Brennan 84), Osbourne, McNally, Harris, B.McGill, E.McGill (Daly 60), Crowley, Martin (Duffy 79), O'Connor, Fitzpatrick
Cards: O'Connor 67, Fitzpatrick 77
|
