League Report: Drogheda United 3 - 0 Galway United

A brace from Chris Lyons and a first senior goal for Jordan Adeyemo gave Drogheda United a 3-0 victory over Galway United at United Park.

Drogheda took the lead on 12 minutes as Mark Hughes switched the play to the left with a brilliant long ball to Mark Doyle.

Doyle took the ball down, beat Chris Horgan and played the ball into Lyons in the box.

Lyons got his shot away and managed to the bundle the ball over the line under the pressure of Stephen Walsh and goalkeeper Kevin Horgan.

Galway’s first chance came after twenty-one minutes but Conor Melody failed to hit the target from a free kick.

Drogheda were threatening, particularly from the left wing. Firstly, Jake Hyland’s cross was met by Luke Heeney but he headed off target.

Then Brennan switched play to Kane on the wing. The full-back beat his man and flashed a delivery across the box, with Doyle inches from connecting with the goal at his mercy.

Drogheda looked to add a second before the break and had three chances to do so.

Mark Hughes overhit a cross back into the box but Sean Brennan on the wing connected with it first time and drilled it back into the box.

Defender Luke McNally was there to turn it goalwards but it was an easy save for Kevin Horgan.

A minute later the ball dropped in the box for Mark Doyle but he volleyed narrowly over the bar.

Doyle again went close with four minutes left in the half as Heeney lofted a ball to the back post, Doyle rose highest but saw his header saved by the hand of Horgan.

Galway did have one final effort in the half as Ludden delivered the ball into the box but Dara Costelloe fired high.

Other than a speculative effort from Conor Kane, it took until the 62nd minute for the first chance of the second half, and it resulted in Drogheda’s second of the game.

Kane took the throw in beside the Galway dugout on the left and Chris Lyons allowed the ball to run across him before firing a powerful effort on the volley past Horgan.

A Galway free kick with 15 minutes to play was only half-cleared back to free-taker Maurice Nugent, but he fired over the bar with the second chance from 30 yards.

Galway had a chance to get a goal back with a minute to play as the ball was knocked down to substitute Colin Kelly in the box but his low effort wasn’t enough to beat Luca Gratzer, who got down low to his right to save.

Drogheda broke on the counter-attack, Doyle played in Adeyemo and he fired low into the far corner to net his first senior goal.

There would be one more talking point though in injury time. Conor Melody was shown a straight red card for an incident near the corner flag which resulted in Doyle requiring medical treatment for a head injury.

Drogheda United: Luca Gratzer; James Brown, Luke Gallagher (Kevin Farragher 13), Luke McNally, Conor Kane; Mark Hughes, Sean Brennan (C), Jake Hyland; Stephen Meaney (Luke Heeney 18), Chris Lyons (Jordan Adeyemo 63), Mark Doyle.

Subs not used: Dan Grace (gk), Cian Kavanagh, Eoin McPhillips, James Clarke.

Booked: Luke Heeney (77), Sean Brennan (90+2).

Galway United: Kevin Horgan; Chris Horgan, Cian Murphy, Stephen Walsh (C), Marc Ludden; Conor Melody, Ivan Gamarra (Ronan Asgari 76), Maurice Nugent, Dara Costelloe (Wilson Waweru 46); Shane Doherty (Colin Kelly 57), Vinny Faherty.

Subs not used: James Tierney (gk), Mark Hannon, Matthew Barrett, James Tierney, Joshua Keane Quinlivan.

Booked: Wilson Waweru (49), Maurice Nugent (72).

Red Card: Conor Melody (90+2).

Referee: Paula Brady.

Attendance: 450 (estimate).

Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Sean Brennan (Drogheda United).