Welcome to Love Is The Drog, a Substack from football journalist Barry Landy. If you’re reading this, that means you’ve signed up for a seven-day free trial or you’ve already subscribed - whichever it is, thank you.
Subscribing to this platform probably means that you, like me, spend your Friday nights watching League of Ireland football. It probably means you live, eat and breathe League of Ireland football and, in particular, Drogheda United.
What we’re aiming to bring you here is a platform that provides the a level of coverage and journalism that your fanaticism warrants. We want to satisfy your craving to consume, analyse, and learn as much as possible about your club.
So, what can you find here? After every Drogheda United match, we will bring you The United Review, a post-match breakdown of the biggest talking points from the game. Tactics, team selection, substitutions, refereeing decision, supporter activity, individual performances - whatever it is, we’ll discuss it.
You can have your own say too - subscribers can get involved in the comments section and debate our points, argue your case and make your own post-match declarations.
Every week, we’ll also bring you at least one piece of feature writing - whether it be an analytical long read, a big interview with a Drogheda United stalwart past or present or something unique like an untold story or a retrospective on something from the club’s past.
Without revealing too much, we have some extraordinary stories to tell on Love Is The Drog - the kind of tales no supporter will want to miss. Some have never been told before.
There’ll be news too. It’s an exciting time on and off the pitch for Drogheda United and Love Is The Drog will be the place to get the lowdown on what’s happening behind-the-scenes at Weavers Park. We will endeavour to bring you stories that are big on all-important detail.
Kicking things off on launch week, we have our first edition of The United Review - taking a look at the 3-1 victory over Bohemians in the Leinster Senior Cup on Monday evening.
Plus - a 2,000 word interview with club owners Benjamin Boycott and Wesley Hill, which was only partially published back in November. Now, for the first time, you can read the whole thing - covering topics as varied as Kevin Doherty’s autonomy, the club’s relationship with Lincoln City, their African connections and whether supporters should have European aspirations.
Barry also caught up with Drogs’ assistant manger Daire Doyle to talk about his decade long association with the club, the wild ups-and-downs of that 2014 campaign and how he and Kevin Doherty have developed such an affinity with the United fans. It’s truly a compelling read and will be available to subscribers on Wednesday.
And there’s more - Barry has been in Portadown this week to visit the club’s new South African international goalkeeper Jethren Barr. We talked African Cup of Nations, swapping the NIFL for LOI, competing with Andrew Wogan, spirituality and more.
And next week, among the journalism you can expect to read, Barry undertakes his first in-depth assessment of the 2024 Drogs’ squad and one aspect in particular that might underpin their efforts this campaign.
And on and on and on they’ll come. Our aim is to make Love Is The Drog is the place for high quality, informative and entertaining Drogheda United writing. We hope you’ll join us.
Subscribe to Love Is The Drog to get articles sent direct to your email inbox as well as access to our website, where you can keep up to date with all of our latest writings and browse our full publication archives.
New articles and archive material are available to paid subscribers only. For just €7 a month, Drogs supporters can enjoy high quality journalism, reporting and analysis from a journalist with Drogheda United at the forefront of their work. Just tap the button below to subscribe.