DROGHEDA UNITED CAPTAIN Jake Hyland will miss his side’s SSE Airtricity League First Division promotion play-off tie against Finn Harps after suffering a broken leg last night.
Hyland sustained the injury during Monday’s play-off second leg tie against Shelbourne at Tolka Park, as Drogheda advanced to the second round of the series thanks to a 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory.
Drogheda today confirmed 23-year-old Hyland was stretchered off with a broken leg after a nasty two-footed challenge by Shelbourne’s James English, a tackle his manager Owen Heary described as ‘cowardly.’
English was sent-off for the tackle and his dismissal reduced Shels to nine men after Reece McEnteer was shown two yellow cards earlier in the first half.
Speaking to Off The Ball after the game, Heary had no qualms over the two red cards and said McEnteer and English had ‘let us down.’
“It was a stupid booking on the first one,” Heary said of McEnteer’s sending off. “A cardinal sin for a defender, you don’t let the ball bounce, he done that, he gives away a free kick, gets booked for it and then he gave away three or four straight after that.
“The referee warned him and he goes and does another one and gets sent off for it.
“James English, it’s a cowardly tackle, you go in over the top and you get a red for it.
“Especially when we’re down to 10 men you don’t need to lunge in like that, you need to keep your shape, keep your discipline. The two boys let us down tonight.”
Despite playing an hour with nine men, Shels forced the tie into extra-time after losing 2-1 on the night, which left the teams level 2-2 on aggregate, before United prevailed on penalties.
Tim Clancy’s side will now face Finn Harps — who finished second in the table — over two legs for the right to face Limerick in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division relegation/promotion play-off at the end of this month.
Proper gutted but will be back stronger 100 percent👊🏻 thank you to everyone for the texts, top class👍🏻 looking forward to seeing the lads do the business now Friday night! https://t.co/bwFqRZucMX
— Jake Hyland (@JakeHyland8) October 9, 2018
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