- Stephen Walsh
- Sun, Jul 10 2016
A superb volleyed goal from Ian Mylod on 80 minutes earned Cobh Ramblers three points tonight in St. Colman’s Park as they defeated Drogheda United 2-1.
The first-half was a dull affair but the second-half was full of action with Sean Thornton giving Drogheda the lead on 61 minutes from the spot. However, the home side bounced back through Marcus Gustavsson before Mylod smashed home to give Cobh an important victory.
Cobh and Drogs had met twice already this season with a 1-1 draw occurring in March in south Cork before the Louth side secured a 1-0 victory in April at United Park.
Before the game kicked-off, Cobh knew they sat three points behind Drogheda in the hunt for the final play-off position.
Both teams played their recent signings with Stephen Henderson starting Darren Murphy in the centre of the park, while Kevin Farragher started for the Boynesiders in centre-defence.
Murphy nearly had the opening goal of this tight First Division game, when following a punched clearance from Stephen McGuinness from a Cobh corner, the ball fell to the former Waterford United player. He dragged his shot wide despite Cian Kingston nearly getting at the end of it.
Cobh had the majority of the possession but were guilty of some very poor passing that affected their build up play.
Aaron Ashe had a shot well saved by Paul Hunt on 17 minutes but that was all the goal mouth action for the next ten minutes as both teams cancelled each other out.
Gustavsson went narrowly wide on 27 minutes after being played in by Shane O’Connor, while Cobh needed Hunt to be at his sharpest a minute later to push an Ashe effort out for a corner following good build up play by Sean Thornton.
The second-half was full of action in comparison to the relatively quiet first-half.
Charlie Fleming had another excellent game for the Rams and he was denied by McGuinness who made a number of excellent saves for Drogheda in the second-half.
Yet against the run of play Kevin Mulcahy fouled Ashe and Mark Lynch pointed immediately to the spot. Up stepped Thornton and fired it low into the bottom right hand corner of the net.
Cobh, experimenting with a new 3-5-2 formation, rallied shortly afterwards and nearly had an equaliser when Mulcahy’s shot at the front post was smartly saved by McGuinness.
Murphy and O’Connor both had further shots but still nothing was beating McGuinness in the Drogheda goal.
Yet with 15 minutes to go Cobh equalised through Gustavsson. Fleming got the ball on the right flank before crossing it to Gustavsson who made no mistake with the header from close range.
Eoin McGreevy fired over a free-kick on 76 minutes before O’Connor tried an individual run on 79 minutes that beat a number of Drogheda players only to see McGuinness tip it out for a corner.
But the constant wave of attacks was bound to count in Cobh’s favour and it did on 80 minutes when O’Connor saw his cross half cleared. It fell to Mylod who volleyed home for his third goal of the season.
Ashe narrowly fired wide at the other end, but with time nearly up, Mylod unleashed a ferocious shot from 30 yards that McGuinness superbly tipped away for a corner, and with that Cobh Ramblers had finally beaten a team above them in the league this season.
Cobh Ramblers: Paul Hunt; Chris McCarthy, Kevin Mulcahy, Cian Kingston; Charlie Fleming, Darren Murphy, Steven Christopher (Johnny Creamer 70), Eoin McGreevy, Ian Mylod; Marcus Gustavsson, Shane O’Connor.
Subs not used: David Browne, Anthony O’Donnell, David Curran.
Yellow Cards: S O’Connor (24).
Drogheda United: Stephen McGuinness; Lloyd Buckley, Luke Gallagher, Kevin Farragher, Stephen Dunne; Sean Brennan, Jake Hyland (Adam Wixted 60), Sean Thornton, Derek Doyle (Liam Donnelly 83); Aaron Ashe, Mark Griffin.
Subs not used: Patrick Dunican, Sam O’Connor, Mark O’Brien, Ken Costello.
Yellow Cards: A Wixted (64), M O’Brien (68), K Farragher (90).
Referee: Mark Lynch.
Attendance: 244.
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Stephen McGuinness (Drogheda United).
