Shamrock Rovers 1
Bohemians 0
Darryl Geraghty reports from Tallaght Stadium.
SHAMROCK ROVERS BROKE their Dublin Derby hoodoo, as they took all three points thanks to Graham Burke’s first-half header, earning their first win over Bohs since May 2017.
It was wild, it was raucous, and that was just the pre-game atmosphere, as the 7,021 in attendance made their presence felt.
On the pitch, it was just as exciting and frenetic in a real game of two halves.
The Hoops dominated possession in the opening period with Gary O’Neill and Aaron McEneff taking turns building the play from deep. The most dangerous outlet seemed to come from the cultured left foot of Sean Kavanagh delivering quality each time, causing all sorts of trouble among the Bohs back four.
And it was this avenue that paid dividends in breaking the deadlock. Aaron McEneff sprayed the ball out to the left back, who took one touch to settle himself, before whipping the ball in deep to Graham Burke, who did brilliantly to direct his header downwards and past the helpless James Talbot for his second goal of the week.
Bohs, playing against the strong breeze in the first half, looked second best throughout and it was all too comfortable for Stephen Bradley’s men going in at the break.
It looked as if the Gypsies, who were on a run of 10 unbeaten against their fiercest rivals, received the “hair-dryer treatment” in the interim, as they came flying out of the traps in the second half. Danny Grant began to look a real threat with his pace on the right wing. Darragh Leahy also went close with a strike from just outside the box.
Keith Long’s charges remained on the front foot and thought they had equalised twice in the space of a few seconds, only to be denied by Burke on both occasions. Firstly, Leahy looped a header over Alan Mannus but the former Preston player, on the line, could only clear to the edge of the area, where centre-back Rob Cornwall was waiting. He wound up and smashed a right-footed volley on target, as Burke bravely got in the way again.
The clock ultimately ran out on the visitors, as Shamrock Rovers managed to weather the second-half storm, stretching their unbeaten run to eight now ahead of a potentially tricky trip to Galway in the FAI Cup.
Shamrock Rovers: Alan Mannus, Roberto Lopes, Lee Grace, Ronan Finn (c) (Daniel Lafferty, 79’), Aaron McEneff, Sean Kavanagh, Gary O’Neill, Graham Burke (Greg Bolger, 66’), Aaron Greene, Joey O’Brien, Jack Byrne (Brandon Kavanagh, 87’)
Subs: Leon Pohls, Ethan Boyle, Greg Bolger, Daniel Lafferty, Sean Callan, Graham Cummins, Brandon Kavanagh
Bohemian FC: James Talbot, Derek Pender, Darragh Leahy, James Finnerty, Rob Cornwall, Keith Buckley, Conor Levingston (Keith Ward, 88’), Danny Grant, Ross Tierney (Luke Wade-Slater, 58‘), Danny Mandroiu, Andre Wright
Subs: Aaron Barry, Scott Allardice, Keith Ward, Andy Lyons, Ryan Swan, Luke Wade-Slater, Michael Kelly
Referee: Rob Hennessy
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