Drogs game review

[pete]

IMO city lost cos midfield very very poor especially in the 2nd half. First time seeing Alan Reynolds in a city shirt & thought he one of best city players on the day. From what I saw looks like a Reynolds-O'Grady partnership the best bet in the middle.

Colin T once again showed he not the solution for the right side as disappeared for most of 2nd half until substituted. Mulconroy not much better when he came on but Greg did well as sub for Hoggie.

IMO Bennet just not good enough. He energetic & gets up & down the pitch but his first touch is not good enough for centre midfield.

O'Callaghan looked the most likely to create a scoring chance but he shows poor judgement at times & when he lost the ball in the 1st half Drogs countered only for Myler to miss with only Devine to beat.

City played well at times & O'Flynn still looks dangerous after hitting the post with diving header & cross bar out of nothing late in 2nd half.

Gunther still hasn't learnt any new (ok someone going to say any at all ;) ) tricks even with the new players & looks like we going for counterattacking away side again.

Disappointing result but Drogheda are a big hoofin' side who probably won't lose much at home this season. If they get the first goal like sunday be hard to beat.

[Pablo]

I thought we played well enough to be fair as Drogheda shut up shop when they got the goal, and time wasted all the time etc...... One game, thats all it was and i'm still confident we have a good team.

Greg has to come into the reckoning now and maybe he could be tried down the right side? and agreed Bennett just does not seem up to it, but he's worth a squad place.

Lets see how we do against Derry

[patsh]

From the Irish Times
Drogheda continued to defy predictions as they ended Cork City's 100 per cent start to the season with another impressive display to move up to second in the Premier Division table.

And while that position may be a little false due to the fact other teams have games in hand and newly promoted Drogheda have played three of their four games at home, manager Harry McCue has every reason to be happy the way his relegation favourites have begun their quest to stay in the top flight.

"I'm delighted to get the win, while the most important thing was the clean sheet, as we had been leaking goals," said McCue, who watched the last few minutes from behind the dugout having been sent from the sideline for dissent.

"We had a scary first 15 minutes or so when we rode our luck, but overall we just about deserved it." In an opening as bright as the much welcomed sunshine, Cork forced several early corners; their third on 11 minutes, taken by Billy Woods, coming within inches of giving them the lead as Alan Bennett's diving header came back off the post.

Seconds later at the other end, Michael Devine in the Cork goal had to save well from Andy Myler, though the Drogheda striker knows he should have found the target from 15 yards after Dom Tierney had laid the ball across on a plate.

Gary Rogers matched Devine's stop shortly after to prevent Drogheda falling behind with a reaction parry save from Woods' close range shot after George O'Callaghan worked some magic to get the ball across.

Cork were proving vulnerable down the middle, though, and they were caught out to concede the only goal on 36 minutes.

Declan O'Brien initially beat the City offside trap only to be thwarted by another good stop by Devine. But on retrieving the loose ball O'Brien was tripped from behind by left-back Neal Horgan to give away a penalty which was almost casually converted by Myler.

Drogheda remained marginally the better side into the second half once Rogers turned a stinging volley from O'Callaghan round a post inside the first minute as Cork seemed to run out of ideas.

Padraig Gollogley came forward for a Mark Demspey free kick only to head straight at Devine before the lively O'Brien showed good feet when turning to shoot over the crossbar.

In a late rally, John O'Flynn almost equalised in stoppage time but his overhead kick bounced onto the crossbar and over.

It seems the performance was not that bad, just a little luck and we could have had 2 or 3. It is disappointing to lose the first away game though. I agree though that Gunther has plan A and only plan A. With the players we have now, things can be changed a fair bit in a game, so Gunther is wrestling with that rope this season...;)
But we should also remember that we have only played 4 games so far and yet scored 15 goals and are in the 2nd round of the cup. We would have been delighted if we had been guaranteed that at the end of last season...:)

[pete]

Originally posted by oddboy
With the players we have now, things can be changed a fair bit in a game, so Gunther is wrestling with that rope this season.....

Yup, not be too many excuses for Gunther this season but i'm sure he'll find one. Not a disaster of a result as Drogheda been doing well so far we did nominate parts of the game. O'Flynn still looks very sharp & stole the ball off defenders a number of times - he also created the overhead kick chance from nothing.

Midfield is certainly the problem area & lets hope for a speedy return of O'Grady.