SOCCER LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION:WITH THEIR visitors this evening, Bohemians, the only team in the league to have outscored them, goals aren't Derry City's greatest concern a little over a quarter of the way into the campaign.
Having seen Mark Farren hit his stride with a second-half hat-trick at Drogheda a week ago, though, Stephen Kenny is hoping Sammy Morrow can also rediscover the touch in front of goal that yielded two goals against Bohemians in December’s FAI Cup final.
The bulk of Kenny’s concerns have been at the other end of pitch where a variety of injuries have prevented any of the club’s defenders featuring in all of City’s 10 league games to date. Clive Delaney and Ger O’Brien are out again this evening, while Peter Hutton is a doubt. However, with the manager’s philosophy having traditionally tended to revolve around outscoring opponents, Morrow, who has yet to find the net this season, could still play a key part in what would be an important win for the home side.
“To be honest, I don’t think I’ve been playing badly at all,” insists the former Ipswich, Hibernian and Livingston striker. “I’ve something like six assists this year but every striker will tell you they’re judged on how many goals they score and I’d love to get the monkey off my back because if I could get the one then I’d feel I could push on from there.”
Morrow’s strike rate in cup finals was remarkable last year, with five goals scored between the League Cup decider in Wexford and the FAI showdown with Bohemians at the RDS. The disappointment of losing the latter on penalties still lingers, though, not least because the Derry-born player missing out on “local legend” status was in part due to finding himself on the wrong end of two dubious penalty decisions by the referee that day.
“Obviously, it was bitterly disappointing at the time,” he says, “but we’re well into a new season and we’re all just looking to move on and improve on last year. Bohemians were worthy league champions but it’s a new season now, there’s two new sets of players and we definitely feel that we can challenge them all the way this year.”
The teams drew 1-1 at Dalymount Park in March, a game Morrow missed through injury, and the performance suggested the northerners could seriously push their title rivals over the coming months. Their recent form at home, however, has been a problem with City finding it hard to break teams down.
“I suppose you could say other clubs have come to the Brandywell and shown us a lot of respect by, well, playing what you might describe as negative football but that’s not a criticism, they have to play the way that gives them the best chance of getting something from a game and it’s up to us to beat them by playing our own game.”
It is not, he readily agrees, likely to be a major factor in tonight’s contest.
In addition to the defenders, Gareth McGlynn is expected to miss the game due to a hamstring injury while Bohemians have doubts about the fitness of Joseph No and Gary Deegan.
In the night’s other games Dundalk will look to bounce back from the drubbing they took from Bohemians last weekend against a Galway side that scored its second win of the campaign over St Patrick’s Athletic last weekend while Drogheda travel to Bray in search of their first league win.
Bray manager Seán Connor will be without Harpal Singh and Chris Turner (both suspended) for the visit of United but Ian Foster appears to have a longer list of problems to contend with as Seán Kelly, Alan Murphy, Niall Walsh and Paul Synnott all look set to miss out through injury while Shane Fitzgerald is in line for a late fitness test.
Drogheda continue to struggle in the absence of prominent players as John Paul Kelly, Paul Crowley. Robbie Martin, Robbie Farrell and Shane Barrett are all still sidelined. “It’s difficult,” acknowledges manager Alan Mathews, “because we’re having to play midfielders as strikers, struggling to take what chances we create and then getting punished at the other end. But we press on and while Bray have done very well so far this season, I feel that if we got a bit of a break it really could provide a bit of a platform for us to go on and improve.”
Bray are without Derek Pender (ankle) while Stephen Brennan (hamstring) is a major doubt but, in truth, Eddie Gormley is unlikely to meddle unduly with the team that won in Tallaght last weekend.
Tonight’s fixtures
(7.45 unless stated)
LEAGUE OF IRELAND– Premier Division: Bray Wanderers v Drogheda Utd, Carlisle Grounds; Derry City v Bohemians, The Brandywell; Dundalk v Galway Utd, Oriel Park. First Division: Limerick 37 v Finn Harps, Jackman Park; Mervue Utd v Sporting Fingal, Terryland Park; Monaghan Utd v Wexford Youths, Century Park, 8.0; Shelbourne v Longford Town, Tolka Park, 8.0.
