Midfielder delighted with first senior goal
Darragh Lenihan scored his first senior goal in professional football against Portsmouth to secure a hard earned point for the Brewers. The young Irishman has been trying his luck at goal in recent weeks and the Blackburn loanee had a feeling that his first goal wasnt far away."I felt like it has been coming." said the popular midfielder, "The past few weeks I have been having one or two shots. I was in the right place at the right time to score my first professional goal but its more about the result and getting a point at a place that is very difficult to come to and get anything."
"As Blythy was running he took a heavy touch and I just took the ball forward myself, it opened up and I hit it into the bottom corner. Luckily enough it went in. I was very happy to get my first professional goal."
It was a game where Albion had precious few chances and it was vital to take one when the opportunity came along and in his fledgling League career Lenihan knew it was going to be a tough assignment.
"We weren't really creating as much." he admitted, "Portsmouth are very organised at the back and they had a game plan and it worked for them. It wasn't a day for us to create as many chances as we would've liked."
"It was tough. The two guys (in central midfield) for Portsmouth are good players and myself and Robbie knew it was going to be a tough game. The gaffer told us before the game it was going to be a hard, physical game. They like to play football, which they did at the start of the match and we had to get to terms with that."
"The first half wasn't as good as we hoped and the second was a little bit better and we were able to put more pressure on the midfield and that's how the chance for the goal came."
A first goal in senior football is something special and for a lower league player to do so in front of a crowd of over 14,000 makes it even more so. For Lenihan, who has so far been used to playing under 21's and development football the atmosphere and experience is something he is relishing, especially being able to celebrate in front of a vocal Fratton Park crowd.
Darragh beamed - "It was terrific. It's the biggest number of people I've played in front of anyway."
"It was a great experience and when I scored the goal I got the boos - that's football for you and you have to play to the crowd. It's a great experience coming to Fratton Park, they were FA Cup winners in 2008 and things like that and it shows how big a club Portsmouth are."
"The minute I scored in the heat of the moment I just ran to the home fans and there were a few boos but that's football.
It's banter."