Town setting early pace
Defender Ray Kenny goes agonisngly close to scoring for Arklow Town versus Drogheda Town at Bridgewater Centre Park.
Wednesday September 01 2010
THREE GAMES inside six days proved highly profitable for a keen Arklow Town team that now finds itself sitting in pole position atop the Leinster Senior League Senior Division.
Having announced their return to the top flight with a very impressive 4-0 drubbing of Firhouse Clover the Arklow club welcomed Tolka Rovers and Drogheda Town to Bridgewater Centre Park for two tough opening home fixtures, played last Tuesday and Friday evenings respectively.
Tolka Rovers have been installed as one of the favourites to land the LSL Senior title this season but inside the opening ten minutes of their visit to Arklow they were trailing 2-0.
Arklow Town blitzed their fancied opponents from the first whistle and were ahead in just the fifth minute after excellent movement on the left flank with Chris Burgess and Ronan Ivory working well before finding striker Darren Forsyth, and he swivelled inside the Tolka area before placing home the opening goal, his third of the season.
The home team doubled their advantage just five minutes later. Again, Ivory was heavily involved, a delightful lob over the Tolka backline seeing striker Gavin Doyle getting a toe to the ball, lifting it beyond the keeper into an empty net. Tolka halved the deficit ten minutes later, a set-piece seeing the number ten steering home a bullet header past Craig Britton in the Arklow goal.
Town enjoyed long spells of dominance in the second-half but without any further goals the game finished 2-1 in favour of Matt Britton's side. Town were then back in action at Bridgewater Centre Park last Friday evening, facing a disciplined Drogheda Town, who included former Irish international Gary Kelly in their ranks. The visitors started brightly and could easily have been two goals up inside the opening ten minutes, denied twice with excellent stops from Arklow keeper Tristan King, making his debut for Town.
The home side rallied and began to gain the upper hand in the middle of the park, with Stephen Hurley and David O'Neill orchestrating matters. Gavin Doyle was denied by the Drogheda keeper on the half hour mark and fellow striker Darren Forsyth went closer still with a drive from the edge of the area inches the wrong side of the Drogheda post as the sides remained scoreless at the break.
Arklow dominated the entire second-half but frustration grew with a plethora of missed chances. Arguably the best move of the game saw Town sweeping down the left flank, a wonderful piece of counter-attacking football, ending with Gavin Doyle steering agonisingly wide of the right post with the Drogheda keeper beaten, a slick move that deserved a better reward.
With ten minutes remaining Town were given a glorious opportunity to claim the points when defender William Tyrrell was impeded in the Drogheda area leaving the referee with no other option but to point to the penalty spot. In keeping with Town's luck in front of goal on the evening the Drogheda keeper dived low to his right to superbly save Darren Forsyth's spot-kick to earn his team a share of the spoils.
