Drogheda boss Kevin Doherty open about double whammy on worst day of his career
Drogheda United manager Kevin Doherty has opened up about the double devastation he and his players suffered on the worst day of his managerial career.
In a double whammy, Drogheda were first thrown out of Europe and then secondly were penalised for a mystery handball which resulted in their 1-0 lead against Shamrock Rovers being wiped out. They eventually lost 2-1.
On the free kick issue, a frustrated Doherty said: 'I thought we deserved something out of the game. I thought we were excellent. I thought it was taken away from us. I have to be very careful, I was advised not to say some things I wanted to say.
Read more: 'Sick' and 'devastated' feeling for Drogheda United boss as CAS delivers verdict on challenge to UEFA ban
'It's mental. I don't know how many away fans there were in the ground tonight, 650? I didn't hear one Rovers supporter looking for a free kick. It absolutely kills you.
'You are playing the best team in the country by a mile, you are coming out playing like that and after the day we've had and having such pride and balls and everything our lads had, for that to happen, I have to be very careful. I don't want to get personal or individual, but anyone with a pair of eyes that's working can see what's happened tonight.'
And then there is the even bigger issue of the club being thrown out of Europe because of UEFA's multi-ownership rules.
Danish club, Silkeborg, are also owned by Drogheda's Trivela Group. They too qualified for the Europa Conference League - meaning Drogheda have been forced to withdraw from the competition.
Doherty said: 'I was confident, very confident we would win our case. Yeah, we're heartbroken. We've had tough times over the years here for different reasons.
'Everything around the club on the pitch is on the up. The CAS decision doesn't change that. Look, have a look around tonight, how positive that is. But it was certainly something that I had to dig deep myself today, to go into the dressing room and try and motivate lads to play a football match.
'It is a tough day.
'We are certainly going for Europe again next year.
'It is something you want to do. You want to progress year on year. We have progressed this year without going mad in terms of our spending. We have not gone out and spent mad money.
"We have gone about it the right way. We have not gone mental with our spending. The calibre of player we have brought in are guys who are hungry. They are lads who want to come here and do well. You have to work hard because we don't have what they have which is …. Our players have hunger. We trust them to work for us. But this hurts, this decision (to kick us out of Europe).'
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