Sligo Rovers 0
Shamrock Rovers 1
SHAMROCK ROVERS HAVE moved into third place in the Airtricity Premier Division following a 1-0 win against Sligo Rovers.
Alan Keane’s first-half own-goal was enough to give the Hoops all three points.
In what was a relatively uneventful first-half, the visitors were probably the better side. Ronan Finn was at the centre of much of the Hoops’ opportunities, and he came close a number of times early on. First, leaping on to a pass from Ryan Brennan, and just seeing it go wide, before Gary Rogers prevented him from scoring just minutes later.
Finn, again, almost put the visitors ahead when he latched on to a Ciaran Kilduff knock on, but he couldn’t convert it under pressure from Evan McMillan.
The home side’s best opportunity to take the lead came from former defender Jason McGuinness, as Gaynor’s cross in looked to be going nowhere, but McGuinness just tapped it goalwords for what looked like an own goal – before Barry Murphy just got to it in time.
Trevor Croly’s side eventually made their pressure count, as they took the lead on 41 minutes. Gary McCabe’s corner headed into the box, Ross Gaynor failed to clear, and it was tapped into the net by Sligo Rovers’ Alan Keane.
The game was delayed for a few minutes as flares and objects were thrown onto the pitch by visiting fans as they celebrated their team taking the lead.
The hosts missed a glaring opportunity to level things up near the hour mark when Aaron Greene’s effort was just cleared off the line by Simon Madden.
Inevitably, there was a slice of drama as former Sligo man Gary McCabe was sent off for a second yellow in the 87th minute.
Sligo Rovers: Rogers, Keane (Odhiambo, 73), Henderson (Spillane, 70), McMillan, Gaynor, Conneely, Cawley, O’Conor (Ledwith, 64), Russell, Greene, North.
Subs: Brush, Donelon, Maguire, Cretaro.
Shamrock Rovers: Murphy, Madden, Kenna, McGuinness, Cornwall, McCabe, Robinson, Brennan (Bayly, 95), Finn, Waters (S. O’Connor, 72), Kilduff (Zayed, 80).
Subs: Hyland, D. O’Connor, Sheppard, Kelly.
Referee: Graham Kelly