United disappointed by draw with leaders

Date Published: 11-Sep-2007

IT IS not too often a team near the bottom of the table will walk off the pitch disappointed at taking just a point from the league leaders, but that is how it would have been in Terryland Park on Friday night.

Drogheda United came west as the champions-elect, short priced favourites to lift their first ever league title when the season finishes in November. They have been the best team in the country this year, but they were second best for large parts on Friday night. Galway United produced the kind of performance expected as the rule rather than the exception by a very patient home support this season.

With the other teams around them also picking up just a point, United’s four point cushion of comfort between them and the relegation playoff spot was not cut, so all told, it made for a pretty decent weekend.

A crowd of just under 2,400 turned up on Friday night, forsaking the opening game of the Rugby World Cup to see if United’s decent run of form would continue. Tony Cousins’ side came into the game on the back of a four-match unbeaten run, though few gave them much chance of extending that sequence to five.

When news filtered through that Drogheda captain Stuart Byrne and playmaker Shane Robinson had both passed late fitness tests, the challenge facing United grew even more…..