Derry City FC -v- Drogheda United FC

• P.J. Murray
• Thu, Mar 05 2009


Derry City welcome Drogheda United to the Brandywell on Friday night (kick-off 7.45pm) for what is an unenviable opening day challenge for the visiting side, who have quickly assembled a squad over the past six weeks after safely emerging from examinership.

Candystripes coasting
Derry are one of this year's favourites to go all the way in the league, whereas Drogheda are expected to be among the teams fighting it out to avoid the drop. Derry have come through pre-season unbeaten, inflicting defeats upon Esbjerg fB, Letterkenny Rovers, Longford Town and UCD as well as drawing with Sporting Fingal and local rivals Finn Harps.

Tremendous
“Our preparations have been generally very good," Derry manager Stephen Kenny told the club's official website. "The players have worked tremendously hard and shown a tremendous attitude. They have shown a lot of character and they are a bunch of decent people. Kevin Deery getting inured in pre-season isn’t ideal and Ger O’ Brien and David Scullion coming in late isn’t ideal either. Nevertheless, I think we’re optimistic ahead of the season now.

Breaking defences
“I expect Alan Mathews to have [Drogheda] well drilled. I expect them to get a lot of bodies behind the ball,” he continued. “They're going to be difficult to score against and they're going to make life difficult. They'll be aggressive and we'll know that we're in a match and we'll get nothing easy from them, so the onus will be on us to break them down and make sure we don't concede on the counter attack. We want three points and nothing less to make sure we give ourselves a good start.

Improved pitch
“Where we need to improve is at the Brandywell," Kenny added. "We lost four games there last season. We need to improve there. Already the pitch is in a better condition than it was this time last year which the groundsman Christopher Parke deserves credit for. There have been fewer games on it. We need the surface to be good for us to play the way we want to play and I think we’ll have a more settled team.”

Firing blanks
Contrastingly, Drogheda, bar a 6-0 trouncing of a Gardai selection last week, have failed to score during pre-season as they took scoreless draws from their encounters with Shelbourne and Dundalk before losing 1-0 to Monaghan United. However, a strong defensive line, lead by captain Alan McNally, should be able to contain Derry, and though their lack of attacking prowess is a concern, Alan Mathews would gladly settle for another stalemate.

Lilywhites reunion
Past form will not play a factor in this game as technically neither side have met before with Drogheda undergoing a major facelift since the end of last season. Among those coming through the United Park doors are ten ex-Dundalk players, including seven of the Lilywhites' First Division title-winning team from last November. The ten, namely, are Steve Williams, Robbie Martin, Jamie Duffy, Paul Crowley, Paul Shiels, Davie O'Connor, Robbie Farrell, Ian Ryan, Robbie Clarke and Brian Kelly.

Trio doubtful
Injury concerns for Stephen Kenny include Kevin Deery, who looks certain to miss out, Stephen Gray and new signing Liam Kearney, who may have to wait for his competitive debut as he faces a late fitness test. Drogheda, however, have no such worries and will travel north with a clean bill of health.