Kevin Doherty - 'We've erased those memories from last year'

Andrew Dempsey reports from Stradbrook Road

Drogheda United assistant manager Kevin Doherty praised the character of his players as the Boynesiders clinched promotion to the Premier Division.

Doherty – who has been Tim Clancy’s assistant at Drogheda since 2018 – has seen the United Park outfit go from being playoff contenders to First Division champions in the space of three years.

The hurt, the anguish and the bitter defeats has made their 2020 league title win all the more sweet as a result.

“I think that hurt from the last two years helped us this evening,” he told extratime.com.

“I also think that the thought of going back into the playoffs – which we’ve been in twice – helped us on.

"We were beaten in extra-time at Finn Park last year and the thoughts of having to do it again..

“We knew we had our fate in our own hands this evening. I think we deserved it with our record over the year.”

The Drogs have defeated Cabinteely, Galway United, UCD and Bray Wanderers twice this year but they did make it difficult for themselves at times with slip-ups at home to Athlone Town and the likes.

However, despite the title win, Doherty did feel for supporters who were unable to make it into the ground under current Covid-19 guidelines.



“It would’ve been great if we could’ve had fans here tonight,” he finished.

“Without going too much into it – my own father would have been at the games and I lost him six months ago nearly to the day.

“Up until our last match before the lockdown he was at our last home game. There’s a lot of people with special connections who would’ve liked to have seen it happen.

“If you go back to last year with the Shels game last year, it’s strange to think of crowds being at football.

“We’ve erased those (painful) memories from last year and we’ll be playing them there next year hopefully.”

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