2010-02-03: Drogheda United 1-3 Celtic XI, Friendly

Drogheda United 1 v 3 Celtic XI
(from Lostbhoys website: link)

I never knew that when I was asked to join the Lostbhoys team that they were so powerful and far reaching. I mean only a short time has passed since I wrote my first article for the site where I was complaining and asking the question ‘why are there no Celtic fans in Ireland’ and why it was so difficult to view the games even in the pubs here, lo and behold someone was listening to my cries of despair and they sent the team over to see me in Ireland instead.

I say the team but in reality it was a Celtic XI made up of mainly youngsters with a couple of notable names led by Neil Lennon and Danny McGrain. However no matter who they sent it was still Celtic coming to my adopted home town here in County Louth to play our local part-time side Drogheda United and I was looking forward to it immensely. For my first three years here I was pretty regular to watch Drogheda home games at United Park on a Friday evening, in fact I was lucky enough to attend as my first game the Setanta Cup Final where the Drogs beat Cork City in what was the debut year of the cross border competition and even better was to come the following season when we travelled up to Belfast and beat Linfield to retain the cup at Windsor Park. Drogheda seemed to be going places and as a full-time outfit they added the Eircom Premier League championship to make it a league and cup double in my second season following the club. Some memorable European adventures followed also, including Henrik Larsson visiting with Helsingborg in the EUFA Cup and also a tie that Drogheda only lost marginally against Dinamo Kiev in their first Champions League involvement, sure I must have been their lucky mascot at this time. Things have drastically changed though in the last couple of years since the initial success I witnessed, the club is now part time and finished a lowly 3rd bottom of the league last season. This was in itself a remarkable feet as many thought they were relegation favorites after losing every single member of the first team squad through breach of contract after going from full-time to part-time, one such player was Graham Gartland who is now plying his trade with St Johnstone and was sent off in the recent contest with Celtic, also at this time influential manager Paul Doolin exited the club where he headed to rivals Cork City. Most of the financial problems arose through a failed planning application for a new all seater stadium and the finance that involved in the project amongst other things which I don't really know or understand enough about to go into great detail here. Yeah Drogheda United have been really struggling for funds lately so to get Celtic over for a pre season friendly was a massive boost to the clubs coffers and if you wonder why I say pre season its because the League of Ireland play summer football March to November. Another point of note is that Celtic actually waived their normal appearance fee for the match so Drogheda could maximise their profits.

So on a damp Wednesday night I set off to Sarsfields Bar to meet up with a few boys before heading up to the park and after a few beverages had been sank purely to get a heat in us you understand it wasn’t long before we were standing on the terracing waiting for the teams to come out. The official Celtic website had the attendance at 2500 but that is in fact the current capacity of the stadium due to recent crowd restrictions, now while I was a little bit we shall say tipsy and I’m hopeless in judging these sorts of things if I’m generous I will say there was closer to 1500 at the game without much of a Celtic end to talk of, maybe a couple of hundred dedicated hoops that wouldn’t normally be at a Drogs game. Still it was a decent enough crowd and the Famous 45 (Drogheda Ultras) were creating a good atmosphere with their drums and flares much to the distress of the stewards over in that corner. Celtic lined up in what was obviously an unfamiliar starting 11 but did include newly appointed club captain Scott Brown as he battles back to full fitness after his long lay off. Also taking the field for his Celtic debut was our new Norwegian signing Thomas Rogne who slotted in at centre half and completely strolled through the game although he will have much sterner tests in the future. This may come soon enough for the big man as rumor has it he will be required on the bench for Sundays visit to Dunfermline due to injuries. Like I said he had a good enough game without being really stretched so I have no real clue as to his prowess although I can tell you he has the best sun tan I’ve seen anywhere this year !!! Two other players who have made fleeting appearances around the first team squad who started the game were Paul McGowan and James Forrest with the latter for me being the star player on show.

In what was an entertaining game Drogheda took what was probably a deserved lead on 37mins through Alan McNally and I say deserved as our big American Cervi in the Celtic goal had been the busier of the two goal keepers thus far although their lead was short lived as James Forrest got the equaliser right on the stroke of halt time, which was just reward for what I thought was a MOTM performance. Half time then and we sauntered round to the club house for another quick beer and a blether with a few folks I’ve gotten to know at the club over the years, principally Mick ‘The Mod’ McEvoy who is pretty famous around these parts as being one of Drogheda’s number one supporters. I could tell you a tale or two about the bold Mick but I’ll save those comedic delights for some time in the future. Into the second half then and Celtic took a quick fire lead through Brown who had been pretty subdued in the proceedings so far and was eventually replaced on the hour mark, I have no doubt though this was an important 60 minutes for Scott to get under his belt and he even managed to not get booked or have an eyeballing contest with anyone, lets get back to full fitness Scott and back to the POTY form we know you have in your locker. Celtic rounded off a comfortable win with the 3rd goal from the boot of Paul McGowan soon after and the game was over as a contest really, thats not to say Drogheda weren’t competitive throughout but as the game wore on tired legs started to show on the Louth men in what was of course a pre season exercise for them.

A decent evening all round then was finished off with another couple of Bulmers in the Windmill Bar, again to get the heat into me for the 15 minute walk home (must be freezing here eh) and on refection it was a decent performance from the second string while there’s definitely hope for the new season ahead for Drogheda United and their fans.

Lets hope we see Celtic over in their spiritual home again soon enough, cheers for now bhoys & ghirls and I hope you enjoy the podcast that was recorded in the wee small hours of the morning 4 hours after the match had finished……hic !