Matthews targeting good start

Drogheda United boss Alan Matthews wants his team to do all that they can to make a good start to the new Premier Division season.

The past few months have been quite turbulent for the County Louth side, who only recently secured their survival by ending a nightmare spell in examinership.

However, there is a hum of positivity about the club now with Matthews in charge of first-team affairs and an entirely new playing squad ready to line out for The Boynesiders.

The pressure will be on to see if Drogheda can survive in the top tier of League of Ireland football with a squad that was assembled in a short space of time, but Matthews is confident that he has a decent set of players to choose from.

Derry City will invite them to The Brandywell on Friday evening for their first game of the new season and Matthews is hoping that they can cause an upset as they set their sights on making a solid start to the year.

“The season is about to start and I’m excited to get going. It has been a lot of planning and working behind the scenes, but pretty soon it will all be about the football,” said Matthews.

“I’ve come here with the task of keeping the club in the Premier Division. It is up to me to ensure the club remain in this league. It will be tough, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe we can do it.

“We have brought in some very good players that will add competition for places. It is also important to note that they are players with a professional attitude – that is something I wanted from the players that I was trying to attract to the club.

“There is no point in bringing players in that don’t have the right attitude and don’t want to work for the good of the team. I feel I have a decent crop here and hopefully they can pick up the right results.

“A lot of other teams have brought in new players, so the first few games will be interesting to see who settles first. We have to do our best to pick up some results and get off to a good start.”

Breakingnews.ie reporter Shaun Cronin spoke to the Drogheda manager about the new season.