Cooke pleased to get off to winning start after break

Drogheda manager Mick Cooke was pleased with the result but admitted that his side has put in better performances yet yielded a lot less.

“I think the three games we played before the break, Bohs, Cork and UCD we played very well but we just got draws from them.”

The Drogs boss spoke of mind-set being key in the game, the first since the three week break.

“As I’ve said before, playing a game after the break is like two players coming back after a rain delay in tennis. You see one of the players two sets up and they come back and he gets beaten. It’s all about your frame of mind when you come back. I thought we were ok today, we weren’t at our best but we got the result.”

Drogheda took the lead on 20 minutes but let the lead slip and it required a few choice words at the break to put the team back on form.

“I thought when we got our nose in front in the first half we took our foot off the gas and we gifted them the goal. There was a few words said about that at half-time. I thought the first 23 to 25 minutes we were in the ascendancy and we would get a second, but I think the lads thought that we would have the wind in the second half and they took their mind off the game.

“When we got the second goal I thought Bray would come looking for an equaliser and would leave gaps for us and that’s what happened and we got the third goal and we were very happy with that,” he added.

Drogheda saw both their strikers score, Peter Hynes and Declan O’Brien along with Paul Crowley all netted and the manager feels that the fact he’s not relying solely on his strikers, “takes the pressure off the rest of the squad.”

Next up for Drogheda is Dundalk in the EA Sports cup at Hunky Dorys Park on Monday night. The team that started against Bray will not be the same as the one that will line out against the Lilywhites.

“I’m going to make changes, we have some players who haven’t played in six or seven weeks because we have no reserve league and that’s a shame, but you can’t expect these players to just come in and be able to play 90 minutes of football because they aren’t match fit.”

It was also confirmed tonight that Drogheda United have captured the highly rated centre back Alan Byrne and the manager said that he would be the first of hopefully many.

“As we speak I have only one signed, they have a couple of amateur players that I would be interested in signing but I can’t take them until July."