Drogheda United 1 Wisla Krakow 4

Drogheda United kicked off their pre-season training camp against a very strong and in-form Wisla Krakow. United started strongly and were in control for the first ten or fifteen minutes, but the Polish league leaders slowly began to impose themselves on the game and after 23 minutes, they were awarded a penalty, when a ball was whipped into the box and amidst the confusion, the ball was adjudged to have hit a defender’s arm. Up stepped midfielder Tomas Jirsak to slot the penalty home, sending keeper Mikko Vilmunen the wrong way.

After half an hour, Brazilian striker Jean Paulista struck an excellent free-kick from the edge of the box, curling into the top corner to increase the Polish side’s lead to 2-0. To be fair, United didn’t lie down, and Richie Baker produced a stunning volley on 35 minutes, chipping ‘keeper Cebanu and finding the back of the net. The sides went in at half-time with Krakow just edging a tight half 2-1.

Krakow made 10 changes at half time, bringing in some South American flair in the shape of Brazilian Cleber and Argentine Cantoro. After 50 minutes, substitute Zienczuk latched onto a rebound after a great save from Vilmunen to make it 3-1. Wisla sit top of the Polish Premier Division and are halfway through the season, and their match-sharpness showed, though Paul Doolin will have seen it as a valuable run-out for his team. Piotr Brozek rounded off proceedings with another excellent free-kick, curled into the top corner with 5 minutes to go.

Triallists Carlos Logan, Antti Kuismala and Ibrahim Thiam all made appearances, and Doolin was happy with their performances. "Ibrahim came on for Eamon and he did well, we were impressed by him. The other lads did well too, Antti came on for Mikko, and Carlos replaced Richie on the wing.”

Despite the defeat, manager Paul Doolin was upbeat. “I was happy with our performance, we were trying a new system and I thought the lads looked good. This was our first proper friendly and, take nothing away from Krakow, they were very good.” Indeed, Krakow currently sit 10 points clear at the top of their domestic league, while this was only United’s second run-out this season. Doolin noted “We’re still lacking a bit of sharpness, but that’ll come. We’re looking forward to Friday’s game with Moscow, it should be another tough game. It just shows that while we’re making progress, we still have a few steps to make.”

Drogheda United: Mikko Vilmunen (Antti Kuismala 71); Brian Shelley, John Tambouras, Graham Gartland, Joe Kendrick; Richie Baker (Carlos Logan ?), Stuart Byrne (Adam Hughes 56), Shane Robinson (Tony Grant 74), Paul Keegan, Ollie Cahill; Eamon Zayed (Ibrahim Thiam 46).

Wisla Krakow: Pavel Cebanu (Marcin Juszczyk 46), Krzysztof Maczynski (Piotr Brozek 46), Junior Diaz, Mateusz Kowalksi (Cleber 46), Przemyslaw Szabat (Arkadiusz Glowacki 46), Patryk Malecki (Wojciech Lobodzinski 46), Tomas Jirsak (Mauro Cantoro 46), Rafal Boguski (Radoslaw Sobolewski 46), Jean Paulista (Marek Zienczuk 46), Dudu Omagbemi (Pawel Brozek 46), Grzegorz Kmiecik (Radoslaw Matusiak 46).