Tim Clancy: ‘We are ahead of what we wanted, expected and hoped for’

Drogheda United begin the second half of the season with a fixture on Friday at home to Finn Harps with Tim Clancy’s side sitting in fifth place in the Premier Division only a point behind Bohemians just above them in the table. 

“The objective from the very start was to stay in the league and we are only at the half way point now but to get 26 points from 18 games is a great return for us,” was Clancy’s assessment of his team’s position at the half way point of the league campaign.

“We are ahead of what we wanted, expected and hoped for and we will try and keep that going.”

Last time out, the Boynesiders drew 1-1 away to Shamrock Rovers, stopping the rot of back to back defeats meaning at least they claimed one point from a busy week with three games.

“Two weeks ago we went to Sligo and beat the team that were top of the league with a great performance and that was five out of six wins for us but then we got beaten convincingly by Bohs. It could have been a lot more than five to be honest that night. 

“That was the first game of the season where we were by far the second best team in the match. The following Monday we suffered a 1-0 defeat against Dundalk but overall the performance was very good. 

“The third game in a week for a part-time team is always the difficult one to get something from. There is nowhere worse to come than a massive pitch like in Tallaght where they pass the ball and keep it so you know it is going to be difficult. Our second half performance and our overall effort was really good. To come away from a point was pleasing for us.”

The Hoops lead at the break last Friday through a Graham Burke penalty and Clancy switched from a flat back four to three at the back in the second half chasing an equaliser.

He brought Mark Doyle and Chris Lyons off the bench ten minutes into the second period and it was Lyons who converted the penalty to help the Drogs claim the draw.

Clancy felt afterwards that his side were fortuitous to take a point, although a header deep in injury-time saw his team go very close to claiming all three.

“We are a lot happier with the point than Rovers will be. The first half was very difficult for us. They dominated possession and had large spells of possession while we fed on scraps and tried to hit them on the counter attack. We got in at half-time lucky to be only 1-0 down.

“Second half we were a bit braver on the ball and believed in ourselves a bit more. We had a good spell of possession leading up to the penalty. From that point on we tried to get a winner but we had to work extremely hard just to contain Rovers and restrict them to limited chances. 

“You have to ride your luck. They had one come off the inside of the post and another flash across the goal. The chances that they squandered they should have scored from but we did have a free header in the 92^nd minute from six yards but Killian Phillips unfortunately hit it the wrong side of the post.”

Darragh Markey was the standout out player for the Boynesiders in Tallaght and he earned United’s penalty kick when his excellent run into the box was stopped by a foul by Burke

“Darragh is full of energy and works his socks off. When fans see a player working as hard as he does, he becomes a fans favourite. Add in that he has quality on the ball, taking it in tight areas past a player, that was yet another good performance from him for us this season. 

“He is playing centraly which gives him an opportunity to express himself. He is enjoying it. He is getting a lot more game time here compared with at Pats. Coming to us it was an opportunity for him to play regularly and we are seeing the benefit of that.”

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— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) June 30, 2021