If…

Dia dhuit everyone, just a quick update in the aftermath of a night out with some mates, and a quick realisation when I came in the door that I hadn’t updated the blog in the last few days. Plenty to talk about though.

I’ll keep it short and sweet for now though. On Wednesday night, Drogheda United left it all in Kiev with what appeared to be another fantastic showing against the superior Dynamo Kiev, coming within inches of the greatest achievement ever by an Irish club in European competition, drawing 2-2 in the Ukrainian capital, but ultimately going out 4-3 on aggregate. I say apparently, good ol’ RTE advertised the match as available for viewing worldwide on their Media Player, but the whole world according to Radio Telefis appears to be the Republic and that’s it. So my judgment on the performance is again restricted to a minute or so of YouTube highlights. Conclusive, eh?

Speaking of which…here are the goals from the match, along with another few tidbits of action. Admittedly, there was a shade of luck in both goals for the Drogs…but frankly, who cares? Fact of the matter is, they went out there with little to no chance of pulling off the upset, and yet they gave those Kiev players one of the biiger frights they’ve probably had for a while, hitting the post and wasting a golden opportunity after Graham Gartland scored the away side’s second in the 88th minute. All in all, it’s been a very positive experience for Drogheda United and Irish football in general. A few more performances like this in Europe in the coming seasons, and it won’t be long before we’re knocking on the door of the group stages, I feel. That’s another debate for another day though, and from the way UEFA have organised the qualifying phase of the Champions’ League next year…well, I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say about that before too long.

And I’ll leave it at that for tonight. Expect a more in-depth look at Wednesday night and a preview of St. Pat’s upcoming UEFA Cup tie against Elfsborg (First leg is Thursday) in the next few days. All things told though, a fantastic, if ultimately losing performance from the Drogs, one to inspire renewed hope for seasons to come.

That’ll do for now. Chances are there will be something up in the next few days. Until then, sliante chugat, all.