League Preview: Cork City v Drogheda United

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CORK CITY

Two mid table sides clash in Turner’s Cross on Friday night when sixth place Drogheda United take on seventh place Cork City in round seven of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.

City have only won one of their opening six games, that was a 4-0 thumping of bottom of the table UCD, so they will be looking to take advantage of their home venue again when they face the County Louth side this weekend.

Manager Colin Healy will have been disappointed with their performance in their last home game however when they lost 2-0 to Shelbourne on St Patrick’s Day.

They got off to a bad start with an unfortunate own goal by Josh Honahan in the tenth minute and they fell further behind five minutes into the second half when Jack Moylan was given too much time in their penalty area. He threaded the ball past City’s Under 21 call up goalkeeper Jimmy Corcoran for their second goal.

Healy will have been particularly disappointed with the lack of goal chances created by his side as they never caused too much trouble to Shelbourne’s keeper Conor Kearns throughout the 90 minutes.

He spoke to the media during the week in advance of the Drogheda United match and he said: “We will be looking for a performance after the Shelbourne result which was disappointing. We went to Waterford last week (midweek friendly at Ozier Park against Waterford) and had a good performance even though we were down to ten men after ten minutes.

“We need to be focussed and be ready, Drogheda are a very good side. They have a good manager and have some good individual players, as have all teams in this division. The lack of clean sheets is a concern, only one in six games, but we have a different system this year, last year we had a back five, this year we have a back four.

“It’s an area we need to be better at and we have been working on it at training this week.’’

On the injury front, Matt Healy will be out for a few weeks with a hip flexor injury but Aaron Bolger and Cian Murphy are back training and will be available.



DROGHEDA UNITED

Two wins, two draws and two losses are Drogheda United’s tally after six rounds of the league, a performance that manager Kevin Doherty will be more than pleased with given that they are one of only two part time squads in the Premier Division.

Their defensive record is one of the reasons they are in such a healthy position with only five goals conceded so far, the same total as league leaders Bohemians.

The Boynesiders were unlucky not to add to their points tally in the last match the County Louth derby at home to Dundalk.

They were the dominant side throughout for the most part with keeper Colin McCabe a bystander for the majority of the game, but they were rocked back when Conor Malley scored a wonder goal for the Lilywhites in the 64th minute.

The Drogs were given the perfect opportunity to get the equaliser their performance deserved when Darragh Markey was fouled by Wasiri Williams in the box with five minutes of normal time left.



On loan striker Freddy Draper took the spot kick but Nathan Sheppard made a great save to deny Drogheda a share of the points|.

This will be Drogheda’s first visit to Cork for a competitive fixture in six years and no doubt they will be looking to their recent positive performance against Dundalk to encourage them   and to remain ahead of City in the table at the end of the 90 minutes.

Referee: Robert Harvey

 

MATCH STATS

Cork City and Drogheda United last met back in August 2017 with a narrow 1-0 win for City.

Many of the players involved in that match are still playing today, albeit with a variety of different clubs.

A quick trawl through the archives shows Drogheda United players Adam Wixted at Warrenpoint, Shane Elworthy at Longford Town and Jamie Hollywood with Lucan United.

Many of the Cork City squad are now retired but some of those still playing include Shane Griffin at Shelbourne, Kieran Sadlier at Leyton Orient (on loan from Bolton Wanderers) and Jimmy Keohane at Rochdale.

 

BETTING

Cork City 21/10; Draw 12/5; Drogheda United 13/5            

PREDICTION

Cork City 1 - 1   Drogheda

 

Cork City

Injured:  Matt Healy

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

 

Drogheda United

Injured:  None

Doubtful: Ben Curtis, Aaron McNally, Matthew O Brien, Adam Foley

Suspended: None

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