Drogheda's Kevin Doherty hoping to deliver in full-time role

Kevin Doherty may have delivered his last letter, but not before signing a major document of his own last November.

For two years, the Drogheda United boss juggled his managerial role with his day job as an An Post employee, but a full-time contract signed in November means that he can now dedicate his time to the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division club.

The news followed on from a takeover by American sports investment fund Trivela Group, who were wholly impressed with the work the former Shelbourne manager had done since taking the reins ahead of the 2022 season.

The group's governance structure consists of managing director Benjamin Boycott, vice-president Wesley Hill and VP of football Matt Jordan, and they have a long-term ambition to turn Drogheda United into a full-time outfit.

The first item on the agenda was to get Doherty to sign on the dotted line, and he is only too happy with how things are going so far.

"It's a different way life for me and hopefully in a couple of years everyone at the club will have that," Doherty told RTÉ Sport at the 2024 League of Ireland launch. "That’s the ambition. The new owners have been great.

"I've had to build up relationships, particularly with Wes and Matt, and I would have spoken to Ben a number of times. I'm very thankful to them for what we've started to do. We now have a full-time academy manager [John Donohue] as well, which is a massive step for the club because you want to be trying to get players through. It adds to the whole story when you have a local player in your team.

"I think we're all ambitious. There will be a lot of talk and maybe different expectations. "Slow progress" are the words that we’ve been using. What we want to do is get better as we go along. That