Drogheda never in trouble

SOCCER/Uefa Cup First qualifying round, second leg/Drogheda United 3 Libertas 0:San Marino's teams may be achieving some small measure of success in their attempts to gain the tiny mountain state a reputation as an inhospitable place for Irish sides to visit but at Dalymount Park last night we saw just how accommodating they become on their travels.

"I don't think we were ever really in any trouble," said manager Paul Doolin after two goals from Paul Keegan and one from skipper Stuart Byrne had seen them safely into today's draw for the next qualifying round. "If there's a disappointment it's that we conceded the goal over there but I was very pleased tonight. We always looked fairly comfortable and I was happy that we got the goals so we could start looking forward to Monday's game in Bray."

There will not, he knows, be anything quite so straightforward on offer in Nyon this afternoon but Doolin is at least hoping to avoid some of the bigger names in the hat. "We'd like to get a club where we have a chance of going through again," he said. "It would be a boost to everyone at the club if we made the first round proper."

United's opening goal here came just 12 minutes in when a long build-up was rounded off by Keegan's even longer shot. The finish was outstanding and while Michele Ceccoli got a touch to it, there really wasn't any way he was going to prevent it reaching the top left corner.

That, of course, was pretty much that in terms of the overall outcome. The Sammarinese now needed to score twice and so the tie was entirely Drogheda's to blow. They didn't come anywhere close to doing that but over what remained of the opening half they occasionally made life a little more difficult for themselves than it should have been. They played a sometimes shaky possession game largely inside their half and then too often settled for long and rather hopeful balls forward towards the strikers.

Chief among the Irish side's temporary problems was the willingness of the visiting four-man midfield to chase almost every pass in midfield and next on the list was the flat five-man defence which made life very crowded around the box while allowing the two Libertas full-backs to stay out wide.

On one of the rare occasions somebody generated some width, Eamon Zayed badly misdirected Simon Webb's curling cross from a couple of yards but the incident did at least highlight just how vulnerable the part-time defenders were when presented with a really challenging ball into the six-yard box.

The visitors must have been happy enough to hear the half-time whistle and went in for the break hoping if they could sustain the workrate and so preserve the pattern of the game, they might again benefit from just the sort of break that had yielded their goal two weeks ago in Serravalle.

Instead, a lapse of concentration cost them a little under four minutes after the restart with Drogheda working the ball up to Zayed who laid it off to Keegan some 12 yards out from where the Dubliner, without a goal in 25 previous appearances for his club this season, drove home his second of the night.

On the stroke of the hour Byrne stepped up to make it 3-0 when he turned home Shane Robinson's corner from the right with a powerful header.

The fact that both men were replaced within four minutes of combining for the goal came as a clear signal from the bench that Doolin was satisfied his team had already done enough to be sure of their place in the next round.

So it proved with Libertas generally settling late on for the avoidance of humiliation while their hosts were apparently happy enough not to pursue a bigger win with too much vigour.

To their credit, Libertas did force Dan Connor into action once late on with Giacomo Fambri splitting the home side's defence to set Paolo Tarini free but the Drogheda goalkeeper came out quickly to clear the danger.

He will, it seems safe to assume even ahead of the draw, be a little busier when Drogheda's next opponents come to town.

DROGHEDA UNITED: Connor; Shelley, Tambouras, Gartland, Webb; Robinson (Baker, 61 mins), Byrne (Bradley, 64 mins), Keegan, Keddy (O'Keeffe, 76 mins); Zayed, Ristila.

LIBERTAS: Ceccoli; Gazzi, Valentini, Sottili, Cevoli, Macerata; Santini (Angelini, 90 mins), Tarini, Semprini (Pari, 60 mins), Nanni (Toccaceli, 70 mins); Fambri.

Referee: L Wouters (Belgium).