30th April 2010

Drogheda United v Dundalk FC

Match Report

Airtricity League of Ireland
Drogs 1 Dundalk 3

The Drogs suffered another comprehensive defeat in this match, this time at home to Dundalk and the unfortunate thing from a Drogs point of view was that from early on in the first half the visitors had such a stranglehold on proceedings that the result was a foregone conclusion.

The return of Gareth O'Connor and Paul Crowley to midfield appeared to give us a good chance before kick-off and we had hoped that Glen Fitzpatrick's return from injury would have given us some stability up front, but our poor start resulted in us being two down after 16 minutes. From the kick-off Dundalk attacked and from a free in the first minute, our central defence parted to allow Breen to score from a free header. This was a wakener-upper for the Drogs and the shocking thing about it was the the visitors always seemed to have the beating of us up front and we were too easily caught square by a well-drilled Dundalk machine. Faz, Gaynor and Fenn seemed to have plenty of time on the ball and we just weren't allowed any time to be comfortable on the ball.

On 6 minutes, Paul Crowley took advantage of a good McGill, Fitzpatrick move to shoot just wide and the the unfortunate truth about the rest of the first half was that in the remainder of the first half we did not pose a meaningful threat to the Dundalk defence. In the meantime we conceded a carbon copy of the first goal when we allowed defender Breen in to score an unchallenged second.

So, 2-0 down at half time - what to do ? - and we knew Alan's intentions right from the restert whine he substituted Colm Smith for Alan McNally and went 3 at the back to try and put pressure on the Dundalk midfield and defence. It was a brave move, and there is no doubt that it gave us more time on the ball and five minutes in Paul Crowley headed over from a good postn but shortly after that Gaynor had two great chances to add to the visitors tally. and tyr though we might, ther was no way through. Gaynor added the third after 68 minutes and the result was clear long before the visitors scored an OG on 80 minutes.

So, its back to square one for us and the priority must now be to shore up our creaking defence before we create an unenviable league record for goals conceded. The light on the horizon in this matter is the imminent return of Damien Brennan from injury........and it will only take one or two results to change things around...

Team: Murphy, Tracey, Kendrick, McNally (Smith 45), Harris, Crowley, O'Connor, B. McGill ( Brennan 80), Daly, King, Fitzpatrick.

Subs not used: Skinner, D. Brennan, E. McGill,