Shamrock Rovers 0 Derry City 2
Third placed Derry City made it a clean sweep of victories this season over Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium to soar eight points clear of the Hoops.
Second-half goals from Aaron McEneff and Barry McNamee earned the Candystripes a deserved fourth straight victory, all of which came without conceding a goal.
Though Rovers enjoyed plenty of possession, they hit the self-destruct button to concede the opener on 64 minutes.
Ronan Finn’s dawdling on the ball in his own half backfired as the ball broke to McEneff and the midfielder was given the time and space to advance and fire a 25-yard shot beyond the static Tomer Chencinski.
Back Rovers but, apart from half-chances for Gary Shaw and Trevor Clarke, they failed to trouble Ger Doherty.
Instead, their goalkeeper Chencinski cost them the concession of a second goal two minutes into stoppage time. Up for a corner, the stopper was caught out trying to retrieve possession and McNamee took full advantage by lobbing the ball from all of 35 yards.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Chencinski; Madden, Grace, Webster, L Byrne (Boyd 83); McAllister (M O’Connor 87), Finn; Miele, Burke, Clarke; Shaw.
DERRY CITY: G Doherty; McDermott, Cole, Barry, B Doherty (Monaghan 65); McEneff, McNamee; Schubert (N Boyle 81), Holden (Jarvis 57), Curtis; Patterson.
Referee: Rob Harvey (Dublin).
Bohemians 0 Bray Wanderers 0
Bray Wanderers gave themselves a morale-boost as they put the brakes on Bohemians’ recent revival to end a run of four straight defeats in a dour game at Dalymount Park.
A fatigued looking Bohemians failed to conjure a shot on goal as Bray had the better of a desperately disappointing first half.
Belying their off-field issues, Bray passed the ball well from the off, troubling the home side on five minutes.
A cross from Ryan Brennan from the right wasn’t cut out with Bohs’ Fuad Sule doing well to block a shot from Darragh Noone.
Bray midfielder Mark Salmon forced a clumsy save from Shane Supple with a low drive from distance before Rob Cornwall had to be alert to snuff out another attack on the half hour with a superbly timed tackle on Noone.
Supple was worked six minutes into the second half, saving down to his right from Brennan’s shot on the turn after Keith Buckley and Salmon carved the opening.
Minutes later Bohs switched from their 4-4-2 formation with Keith Ward coming on to replace Dinny Corcoran, playing in behind Ismahil Akinade.
That did bring an improvement as Keith Long’s side enjoyed decent spells of possession, though still without troubling Lee Steacy in the visitors goal.
Dan Byrne might have won it for the home side on 81 minutes.
The lively Sule picked him out with a weighted diagonal ball with the big defender flashing his powerful header wide across goal.
Bohs mustered another late chance. Substitute Paddy Kavanagh whipped a cross in from the right, but the out-of-sorts Akinade sent his header over the top.
BOHEMIANS: Supple; Hayes, Cornwall, Byrne, Pender; Poynton (O’Connor, 78), Sule, Brennan, Fitzgerald (Kavanagh, 67); Akinade, Corcoran (Ward, 56).
BRAY WANDERERS: Steacy; Buckley, Clancy, Kenna, Moore; Sullivan (Lynch, 87); Brennan, Salmon, Noone (McCabe, 74), Marks (Pender, 78); Greene.
Referee: Graham Kelly (Cork).
Finn Harps 1 Galway United 3
The sending off of Paddy McCourt shortly after half-time proved to be a turning point in this relegation six-pointer as Galway United bagged the points at Finn Park with their first away win of the season.
In a cracking first half, Galway, without an away league win all season, went ahead on 13 minutes when new signing Jonah Ayunga put Gavan Holohan through to score.
Harps’ Eddie Dsane had a goal ruled out for being off-side on 26 minutes but a minute later was taken down in the box after being put through by Sean Houston. However, Dsane’s spot-kick was saved by Conor Winn.
Both sides had further chances before Dsane bagged the equaliser on the stroke of half-time as he dashed in to meet a fine Caolan McAleer cross.
Caolan McAleer capitalised on a defensive mix-up to dash down the right flank and whip in an inch perfect cross for the in-rushing Dsane to head firmly home from close range.
McCourt got a second yellow on 51 minutes for a foul on Colm Horgan and the Donegal club had to endure several anxious moments.
Galway made it 2-1 with a thumping 25 yard free from Ronan Murray on 76 minutes and the same player added the third on 83 minutes following a counter attack to seal the victory.
FINN HARPS: Gallagher; Cantwell, Mailey (Keita, 77 mins), Coll; Timlin, McCourt, Boyle, Harkin (McNulty, 46 mins); Houston; McAleer (Millien, 86 mins), Dsane.
GALWAY UNITED: Winn; Horgan, Sinnott, Folan, Ludden; Devaney (Shanaghan 6, 89 mins), Cawley, Byrne (Manning, 66 mins), Holohan; Ayunga (McCormack, 90 mins), Murray.
Referee: N. Doyle (Dublin).
