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Linfield beat defending Champions on opening night

Tuesday 27th February 2007, 12:32 am

Linfield got some sense of revenge tonight, opening the Setanta Sports Cup with a 1-0 in over Drogheda United at United Park. The Drogs knocked out Linfield at the semi-final stage last season. Aidan O'Kane struck the only goal of the game after thirty minutes to dent Drogheda's hopes of retaining the trophy.

Drogheda went into the game with selection worries up front and lost Shane Barrett to another injury very early in the game.

O'Kane struck what proved to be the only goal of the game on thirty minutes, firing a volley past Drogs keeper Dan Connor.

Prior to that, Drogheda had had a couple of good chances with Ollie Cahill doing well and Paul Keegan narrowly missing the target with a free kick. However, that went against Linfield having the better of possession.

Aiden O'Keefe came in as a first half substitute and twice went close as Drogheda looked for an equaliser.

O'Kane could have killed off the game before the break but he fired over from a good position as Drogheda's defence looked totally disorganised.

Drogheda will be wondering how they didn't level in the second half and substitutes Tony Grant and Declan O'Brien both went close. Stuart Byrne would have made a goalscoring debut but for some last ditch Linfield defending. Ollie Cahill was also close to grabbing a debut goal and Graham Gartland had a header ruled out for offside.

Although just the first of six group games for each club, tonight's result at United Park could yet have a huge bearing on which two sides qualify from the group.

Drogheda United : Connor, Webb, Gavin, Gartland, Robinson, Shelley, Byrne, Keegan, Ristilla (Grant 54), Barrett (O'Keeffe 7) (O'Brien 68), Cahill.
Linfield : Mannus, Douglas, Lindsay, Murphy, McCann, Dickson, Downey, McAreavey, O'Kane, Thompson, Stewart (Ferguson 77).