Drogheda 11 : 3 Clonard
Drogheda Water Polo Club’s men’s senior team stretched their top flight winning streak in the National League on Sunday with a comfortable victory over bottom side Clonard in the National Aquatic Centre.
Drogheda’s match was game 3 of a 4 match programme in the competition pool and the later than normal start for the team seemed to have had an affect as it took them quite a while to get into their stride. The first quarter failed to deliver any spark from either side and profligate play from Drogheda meant they didn’t take the lead in a match they were dominating until a Garret Johnstone foul led to an extra man play for Drogheda.
Head Coach James Healy took the unusual step of calling for one his two available time outs to gather his charges and make his feelings known. Healy’s stern words seemed to have the required effect as from the resulting set play Teige Kelly opened the scoring with a near post finish to finally break the deadlock and breach the otherwise excellent Clonard net minder Hugh Murphy.
Spurred by taking the lead, Drogheda continued to apply pressure on the Clonard rearguard leading to a penalty foul by the ageless Belfast full back Gareth Bowden on Isa Aljunied which ended up with the Drogheda star’s flowing locks on display as his cap was removed by Bowdens attempted tackle. After a short delay and some deep diving to retrieve Aljunied’s cap Andy Healy stepped forward and made no mistake with a left handed penalty to give his team a 2 goal advantage heading into the second quarter.
More wasteful play from the Drogheda side including a uncharacteristic slip from Luke Callaghan and a missed golden opportunity from Healy led to a heart stopping moment at the mid way point of the second quarter when a remarkable display of quick fire reaction one on one saves by the excellent Adam Child somehow managed to keep Clonard off the scoresheet.
Drogheda were living dangerously and their extra man defensive work paid dividends after exclusion fouls on Alex Tapu and Teige Kelly as they managed to nullify Clonard’s set play efforts. The rearguard was finally breached when Andy Healy found himself in the bin for an over exuberant tackle and Mark Cusick made no mistake from 2 metres to cut the deficit to 1 goal.
However a booming effort from Luke Callaghan from all of 10 metres restored the Drogheda advantage and more than made up for his earlier slip followed by another slip, this time from Andrew Healy who somehow managed to regain control before blasting his first from open play to hand Drogheda a 3 goal advantage at half time.
The third quarter was played at a pedestrian pace, Drogheda happy to hold firm and protect their 3 goal cushion with the rearguard action once again holding to prevent Clonard taking advantage of extra man plays following the sin binning of Aidan Mullaney and Alex Tapu.
It took Drogheda all of 6 minutes of play before they extended their stranglehold on proceedings when another penalty opportunity for the left hander Healy after ‘Man of the Match’ Teige Kelly drew the mistake from Clonard youngster Luke Cusack. This time Murphy in the Clonard goal did really well to prevent the initial shot but his save only rebounded directly to Healy who made no mistake at the second time of asking.
Clonard were offered a glimmer of hope as the quarter ended following the sin binning of Alex Tapu, however much to the frustration of coach Pete Cusick, for the second time in the match one his charge had strayed offside, handing possession back to Drogheda.
A clearly fitter Drogheda outfit were the only ones likely to win this game and a very one sided final 8 minutes saw Aidan Mullaney register his first of the afternoon, remarkably having aped Callaghan and Healy with an initial slip before finding his way to rattle the Clonard onion bag with his rasping second attempt.
Teige Kelly then added his second of the afternoon, a back post tap in, while team captain Claremorris native Simon Heffernan took full advantage of his speed, breaking at full pace to finish off a defence splitting goal throw from the excellent Adan Child.
Healy bagged his 4th of the afternoon following the exclusion of Aodhan Brennan while another excellent full pitch pass from Child in the Drogheda goal found Aidan Mullany perfectly placed to bag his second of the afternoon. Two Gareth Johnstone efforts, either side of some brilliant extra man play from Finn Hanley to set up Alex Tapu, proved to be scant consolation for Clonard who in fairness were missing some of their start performers, as Drogheda sealed an 8 goal winning margin.
This victory sees Drogheda hold onto 4th place in the top flight. Elsewhere in the division North Dublin continued their winning streak as they disposed of Corrib to maintain top position in the league while St Vincents proved far too strong for Clontarf to remain in 2nd place and 3rd placed Cathal Brugha suffered their second reversal of the season, this time to Sandycove who bagged their first points of the campaign.
Next up for Drogheda is a challenging trip west to face Corrib in their home patch on December 16th.
Drogheda: Adam Child, Alex Crosbie, Alex Tapu, Aidan Mullaney, Teige Kelly, Carlos Lopez, Luke Callaghan, Simon Heffernan, Finn Hanley, Andrew Healy, Isa Aljunied, Pearse Branigan, Simon Brazil.
