DROGHEDA UNITED enhanced their chances of premier, division survival with a 6-1 thrashing of Galway, which more or less dooms the western club to relegation.
Drogheda got a great start when, after only four minutes, Bobby Browne laid on a great crossfield pass for Barry O'Connor to run in and open the scoring.
They were two up in 11 minutes, when Trevor Crolly scored at the second attempt and then after 18 minutes, the game was virtually lost to Galway when John Ryan scored.
Galway had a brief flicker of hope at the start of the second half when John Brennan scored in the 48th minute; but things started to run against them again when Tom Sullivan ran onto a Crolly pass to score Drogheda's fourth in the 56th minute.
In the closing stages Drogheda totally dominated and it was no surprise when Barry O'Connor added another in the 83rd minute and finally, Trevor Vaughan recorded Drogheda's highest score for some years when he fired in from 15 yards in the 86th minute.
This was a fast moving game, dominated by some fine midfield play by Bobby Browne for Drogheda. Galway were always struggling after they went behind from early on and in spite of three second half substitutions, never, really looked like salvaging even a point.
