Drogheda 3
Cork City 1
Barry Landy reports from Weavers Park.
DROGHEDA UNITED TOOK a huge step towards Premier Division safety as they beat 10-man Cork City at Weavers Park, a result which leaves them eight points clear of the relegation play-off position.
Knowing defeat against Cork would see Liam Buckley’s team move to within two points of them in the table, this was a match Drogheda could scarcely afford to lose. But the greater need for victory was with Cork.
This defeat – Drogheda scored all three of their goals after Malik Dijksteel’s second half dismissal – leaves them with a big task to secure safety before the regular season ends. Kyle Robinson, Aaron McNally and Ryan Brennan did the damage after Kevin Custovic’s first-half opener.
Dutch winger Dijksteel, making his first start for the club, was shown a second yellow by Rob Hennessy for a push on Luke Heeney after a brief flashpoint between the teams. It was a cheap dismissal and ultimately cost his team a single point, never mind three.
Preserving their top flight status is crucial at this point in the season too as Drogheda have now completed the due diligence process with the Trivela Group, who hope to complete a takeover of the club.
Cork were worth the lead that came from Custovic’s corner. The Swede headed in a corner in the first half. Dijksteel, before his second half dismissal for two yellows, was denied by Andrew Wogan.
Ruairi Keating had three presentable chances of his own throughout, but uncharacteristically had an off night. Among them, was a shot that hit the post in the second half.
It was the striker’s first league start in six weeks after the tragic death of his father Ciaran. He did make a goalscoring return in Cork’s FAI Cup win over Waterford on Monday. But he couldn’t quite put the game beyond Drogheda.
Despite a frustrating night personally, his form will surely be key as the season nears its end.
The home team were level when Kyle Robinson finished emphatically after Conor Keeley knocked a free kick down, into the striker’s path. Keeley had himself gone close shortly after the game restarted. His header from a corner cannoned off the crossbar.
Remarkably, Drogheda hadn’t beaten Cork in the league in over 11 years. McNally’s superb volley looked to have ended that sequence. He ran onto Brennan’s fine pass into the area.
The monkey was officially off United’s back in injury time. Brennan scored his sixth goal of the season from the penalty spot after Conor Drinan took down Adam Foley.
DROGHEDA UNITED: Andrew Wogan; Luke Heeney, Conor Keeley, Evan Weir, Conor Kane; Gary Deegan, Ryan Brennan; Adam Foley, Darragh Markey (Warren Davis, 52), Dayle Rooney (Aaron McNally, 73); Kyle Robinson.
CORK CITY: Oliver Byrne; Kevin Custovic, Cian Coleman, Joshua Honohan, Conor Drinan; Rokas Stanulevicius (Gordon Walker, 53), Andrii Kravchuk; Cian Bargary, Ben Worman (Jaze Kabia, 62), Malik Dijksteel; Ruairi Keating.
Referee: Rob Hennessy
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What a left hook
@Joe Bloggs: what a chin
I watched this live. The punch from Uzcategui was after the bell. Dirrell himself showed allot class and sportsmanship, approaching Uzcategui to say he forgave him. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Dirrell’s corner. They started a fight at ringside and then when they eventually got in the ring Dirrell’s uncle carried out this cowardly attack on Uzcategui.
Hopefully he was arrested immediate after and charged with assault.
@SYM-Metal: UPDATE: There is an official police report filed. Mr Leon Lawson is wanted on 2 counts of assault in the 1st and 2nd degree,by the state of Maryland.
Mr Lawson was not arrested at the scene and is still at large. He faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
@SYM-Metal: The bell went when he was swinging. Fair enough it did connect after which is illegal but I don’t think it was 100% intentional.
As for Andre Dirrell, the guy has absolutely no balls whatsoever. It’s sickening how much of a quitter he is. Absolute play acting pretending he couldn’t continue as he knew he had a chance of a DQ win if he quit, it wasn’t as if he was caught with a sucker punch, they were still fighting. He was even getting up and decided to go back down. I would have given him the benefit of the doubt had he not done something similar against Arthur Abraham.
As for his uncle that was despicable, kind of funny I can’t lie, but horrible.
@SYM-Metal: I thought it was marginal if it was late. I think the refs positioning was poor in that situation with dirrell being backed in the corner and uzcategui letting his hands go with the round almost over the ref should have been right on the action,instead of a few yards away. A fighter in the mode of a combo is unlikely to just be able tot stop it when he is already in motion, talking about milliseconds in this instance.
@Seamus Cummins: you could hear Dirrell’s corner telling him to stay down
DJ Khaled should have done more to prevent that
Classy stuff.
Uncle Bam
Poor Dirrell can never catch a break.
@Leon: I think he’s the one catching the breaks and making the most of them.