Bray Wanderers 1 Sligo Rovers 0
Sligo’s flying start to last year’s campaign might be best remembered for Anthony Elding’s goal-spree but six clean sheets in their opening eight games certainly played their part, reports Emmet Malone. Two games in this year and Ian Baraclough’s defence is struggling to discover that sort of form.
Three of the club’s last four visits to the Carlisle Grounds had ended without either side scoring and by the end tonight, obviously enough, the visitors would have settled for making it four out of five. They simply hadn’t earned it, though.
On a succession of occasions Sligo looked shaky at the back and while Bray lacked the quality to convert the bulk of their chances, the visitors paid for presenting Jake Kelly and Ciaran Byrne with one that they clicked quite well for a minute or so into the second period.
All the Rovers pressure late on could well have yielded an equaliser for Bray, on more than one occasion, seemed to ride their luck a little as Rovers piled forward. In the last couple of minutes, in particular, the visitors could have grabbed a point through Paul O’Conor or Eric Odhiambo, both of whom narrowly missed big chances. On the whole, though, it would be hard to begrudge the locals their first win in 17 over opponents who may come to view the lost points as costly.
Rovers actually made the brighter start and might have led within the first few minutes through Danny North who had two good chances; one a close range shot, the other a header at the far post. The first produced a decent reaction save from the generally impressive Shane Redmond but for the second the goalkeeper was helpless and the striker really should have found the target.
The early Rovers dominance seemed likely to set the pattern for what was to follow but Bray gradually battled their way into things, working hard to close their opponents down as they tried to play their way out of defence and reducing them at times to long balls forward that, in the blustery conditions, had little chance of setting North on his way.
More than that, though, Wanderers started to carve out chances of their own with Sligo’s defence coping pretty poorly when put under pressure. Initially, the threat didn’t amount to too much but the one real exception came just short of the midway point in the opening period when Byrne controlled a long ball out of defence well and then, as the entire Rovers back four closed in, released Kelly with a perfectly weighted pass into space. The 23-year-old winger took off after it with all four defenders in chase but despite having enough time to pick his spot from the edge of the area, his shot was poor and Rogers, who had come well to narrow the angle, waved with his feet.
The let off should have een enough to wake Sligo up but they still looked a little too pedestrian when defending around their own are or trying to work their way forward from the edge of it.
For all that, though, the way they fell apart for the Bray goal immediately after the break was still a shock. Shane Byrne’s original cross from the left looked straightforward enough to deal with but Danny Ledwith badly sliced his attempted clearance while Kalen Spillane turned his back rather than attack the loose ball. It ran to Kelly shifted it first time to Byrne, who was there to turn it home even if the very last touch looked to be off Evan McMillan.
For most of what was left of the contest, Wanderers sought to dig in and asked no more of their lone striker than to hold the ball up occasionally. As the pressure mounted, he didn’t even get to do that much but Redmond, despite having to come off his line to tidy things up once or twice, never actually had to make a good save through the closing stages which says something about the performances of those in front of him ... from both teams.
Bray Wanderers: Redmond; McGill, Webster, Mitchell (Cooney, 27 mins), Maloney; Hanlon, Zambra, G Kelly, J Kelly; S Byrne (Curran, 87 mins); C Byrne (Scully, 64 mins).
Sligo Rovers: Rogers; Keane, McMillan, Spillane, Ledwith (Greene, 76 mins); Cawley (Djilali, 63 mins); Odhiambo, Russell (Conneely, 38 mins), O’Conor, Gaynor; North.
Bohemians 2 Drogheda United 2
Gary O’Neill scored twice, the second a late equaliser, as Drogheda came from 2-0 down to somehow salvage a point from Dalymount Park to stay top of the Premier Division table.
Though Robbie Horgan’s side, to their credit, never lied down, Bohemians, 2-0 up from a Dinny Corcoran brace, were left to rue a host of missed chances to have won and gone top themselves
St Patrick’s Athletic 3 UCD 2
There were dramatic late scenes as Christy Fagan popped up with an injury-time winner to help St Patrick’s Athletic overcome UCD 3-2 at Richmond Park.
The deadlock was broken when Greg Bolger’s pass split the UCD defence in the 25th minute and Conan Byrne flicked a confident finish beyond Conor O’Donnell from 12 yards.
The league holders struggled for fluency in the opening-half with Keith Fahey and Lee Lynch largely anonymous and they were made to pay for their lethargy as the students levelled matters in the 38th minute. The move originated down the UCD right flank as Cillian Morrison was afforded far too much space to pick out an unmarked Chris Mulhall, who rolled a calm finish across Brendan Clarke.
Further defensive uncertainly saw the champions fall behind in the 42nd minute as Ken Oman needlessly hauled down Mark Langtry, with Mulhall exacting full retribution with a 25-yard free-kick that Clarke allowed to sneak under his body.
Pat’s looked sharper upon the restart but still required a moment of sublimity from Byrne to restore parity as he curled a glorious free-kick beyond O’Donnell in the 64th minute. UCD looked more likely to grab the winner in the closing stages but they fell to Fagan’s sucker-punch in the 92nd minute, with the centre-forward crashing a powerful shot across O’Donnell from 10 yards.
Athlone Town 1 Shamrock Rovers 4
It was an emotional night for Athlone Town, who hosted a first top flight home fixture in 18 years, but Shamrock Rovers refused to be too sentimental easily pocketing the spoils.
Disappointing when drawing with Derry City last Sunday Trevor Croly’s side were far slicker in the midlands as Shane Robinson, Ryan Brennan, and Ronan Finn, in particular, supplied the midfield guile.
With Simon Madden eager and willing to attack from the right Rovers shaded the opening quarter as Athlone were forced to defend. The midlanders’ failure to deal with a routine setpiece situation proved costly in the 22nd minute as goalkeeper Paul Skinner dropped Seán O’Connor’s corner and Ciaran Kilduff prodded the visitors’ ahead with an opportunistic finish.
Agitated by how the Hoops were ruling the contest Athlone leaked another goal on 33 as Shane Robinson’s pass released Gary McCabe, who rolled the ball past the advancing Skinner.
Three minutes after the restart Madden’s followed a typically smart run with a crisp cross with Kilduff hooking Rovers three clear.
Rovers continued to manufacture chances as Kilduff and Sheppard were denied by Skinner saves. Those misses scarcely mattered, though, because substitute Eamon Zayed clipped a last minute fourth.
Alan Byrne replied with a stoppage time consolation for Athlone, but Rovers’ thoughts had switched to next Friday’s intriguing Dublin derby with cross town foes Bohemians.
Dundalk 2 Limerick 1
Substitute Kurtis Byrne’s 79th minute header gave Dundalk their first league win of the season as they came from a goal down to beat Limerick 2-1 at Oriel Park.
Byrne reacted quickest to guide the ball home from six-yards after Lims goalkeeper Shane Cusack did well to deny Patrick Hoban’s effort with his feet.
After a quiet opening to the game, Limerick took the lead after 15 minutes when Shane Tracy’s 40-yard free-kick was inexplicably dropped and carried over the line by Dundalk goalkeeper Peter Cherrie.
Dundalk hit back and David McMillan and Daryl Horgan both went close before the Lilywhites equalized four minutes before the half-time whistle.
