Players affected by pressure Cooker: Mick

With their hopes of catching Sligo Rovers fading dramatically over the weekend as a result of defeats to Shamrock Rovers and Cork City, Drogheda United boss Mick Cooke believes the pressure might be getting to his players.

Though they may still be considered as the surprise package of the season and currently remain in second place, the Louth side had carried some title ambitions with them into the weekend. But after losing ground on leaders Sligo and also seeing Shamrock Rovers crawl to within two points of them with a game in hand, those dreams look to have been vaporised.

“A few of our lads have maybe realised the pressure is on now we’re into the final series of games and we need to deal with that now,” Cooke said after last night’s thrilling encounter at Turner’s Cross, which saw Drogs draw level on two occasions only to still lose out by the odd goal in five.

“We were here early in the season and went two down before winning 3-2 but that shows you (how unpredictable the league is).”

As the players attempted to catch their breath following the most fascinating of games, there was little need for the Drogs boss to hide his disappointment. Having fallen behind after only five minutes, the visitors drew level nearing the break only to fall behind just four and a half minutes into the second half. But when Declan O’Brien made it 2-2 and Cork were reduced to 10-men as Mark McNulty was given his marching orders, they couldn’t capitalise.

After what Cooke called ‘a lack of concentration’, they ended up conceding within six minutes, condemning them to their sixth defeat of the campaign.

“It’s disappointing (the result) but I thought Cork were better than us when they went down to 10 men. With both teams having lost on Friday it was always going to be a tough game but Cork were hungrier than we were.

“I felt when we got the equaliser before half-time we would have pushed on and won it but we conceded again early in the second half from a bad goal. We got a goal back again but for some reason we stopped playing, we switched off and paid the penalty.

“We took our foot off the pedal and a lack of concentration at the back cost us and Cork defended very well, set their stall out and we couldn’t get a goal.”