DRINAGH Rangers B inflicted a first PremierHiSpecCars.com West Cork League Premier Division defeat of the season on the club’s A team in Canon Crowley Park on Sunday.
Before we start, this was no fluke 1-0 result. In recent weeks, promoted side Drinagh B have settled into life as a Premier Division team. A victory over one of the frontrunners was coming even though few, if any, suspected it would be at the expense of their title-chasing club mates.
17-year-old Liam Daly’s 38th-minute effort proved the only goal in a close encounter but make no mistake, a steadily improving Drinagh B were full value for their win.
‘We have been very unlucky this season in that results have not gone our way,’ Drinagh B manager Ken Kingston told The Southern Star.
‘On Sunday we were the better team. This result was coming though. Academy player Liam Daly scored the winner for us. The result was no fluke. We have been steadily building.
‘We were very unlucky to lose to Castletown Celtic 3-2. We gave Clonakilty Soccer Club too much respect and lost 2-0. We ran Drinagh (A) close earlier in the season and lost 2-1 but this is a very good team. We are a quality side.’
Last weekend’s fixture-list was decimated by the after-effects of Storm Bert leaving Drinagh Rangers versus Drinagh Rangers B as the solitary Premier Division survivor.
Two teams from the same club competing in the same division is only possible because of a recent FAI rule change. As a result, and for the first time, the Canon Crowley Park club has two representatives competing in the region’s top tier.
Newly-promoted – bottom of the table before the game – Rangers B were eager for a first league win. Rangers’ first team was equally desperate for three points at the opposite end of the table. The current pacesetters want to get their hands back the Premier Division trophy following last year’s second-place finish behind champions Clonakilty Soccer Club.
This recent meeting was the second time the teams faced off this term in the league. Drinagh edged Drinagh B 2-1 at the end of September and this second encounter was expected to be equally tight. So it proved as Drinagh B inflicted a first league defeat of the season upon their club-mates, and also moved off the foot of the table.
‘At the start of the season, three of our starting players signed for the Drinagh A team,’ Ken Kingston noted.
‘Had we those guys still involved, I honestly believe we could push for a top-three finish. We had to bring younger players in from our Academy to replace those lads that moved on. It took us a bit of time to settle, three or four games, to find our feet.
‘Now we have a settled side with the likes of Liam Daly, Daniel Fernandes and lots of other younger fellas including my own son Kenny who are used to Premier Division football now. Looking at things as they stand right now, I think Drinagh B can finish in mid-table.’
Bottom line, a first league loss has denied Danny McQueen and Robert O’Regan’s league leaders an opportunity to stretch their advantage over second-placed Castletown Celtic. Champions Clonakilty, currently lingering in third, remain six points behind but with three games in hand. Fourth-placed Dunmanway Town cannot be ruled out either.
There is still time to turn things around but this is a division usually decided by the slimmest of points margins. How important will this loss be to Drinagh Rangers at the end of the campaign?
As for Drinagh B, a young and improving side playing a quality brand of football will take points off plenty of other established Premier Division clubs before season’s end.
‘We have the players to play the system we want to play,’ Kingston concluded.
‘The young players coming in are not afraid. We have options and that is the big thing. Going up against Drinagh today, our bench was always going to be huge for us. All the lads that came on made a difference.
‘Now we have back-up for positions and it is all being done off the back of work being carried out with our young players in the Drinagh Rangers Academy. This is my third year involved with Drinagh B and it is the 16 and 17 year olds from three years ago that are beginning to come through now.’
