Shamrock Rovers 1
Galway United 1
JOHNNY KENNY SALVAGED a point for Shamrock Rovers with a late equaliser as they were made to work extremely hard for a share of the spoils by Galway United at Tallaght Stadium.
Trailing to Stephen Walsh’s 55th-minute lead, Rovers huffed and puffed before levelling on 84 minutes.
Dylan Watts whipped over their umpteenth corner of the night. Substitute Kenny outjumped Walsh to find the top corner despite Brendan Clarke, who had earlier saved a penalty from Watts, getting a hand to the ball.
The champions drop a place to third in the table, five points behind leaders Shelbourne, though with a game in hand as Galway remain fifth.
A suspension for defender Dan Cleary added to Rovers’ injury list as Stephen Bradley’s bench included no fewer than seven teenagers.
Watching from the stand as he served a suspension, Galway Galway manager John Caulfield will have been pleased as his well-organised side frustrated Rovers throughout the first half.
Despite being on the back foot, it was Galway who had the only shot on target in a dour first half, Leon Pohls comfortably dealing with Al-Amin Kazeem’s low drive.
The second half thankfully began with far more spark to it with Rovers fluffing a chance to take the lead three minutes in.
A Watts corner initially dropped for Rory Gaffney whose shot was blocked by Walsh.
The ball remained alive with Hoops’ skipper Roberto Lopes laying it off for Darragh Nugent whose shot struck the arm of Jeannot Esua to concede a penalty.
But Clarke produced a terrific save down to his right to deny Watts from 12 yards.
Aaron Greene then miscued a header from Gaffney’s cross dead in front of goal before Galway stunned the home crowd to take the lead.
McCarthy hooked a clever ball over his shoulder for the run of Walsh who skipped past Sean Kavanagh to find the corner of the net past Pohls.
Shamrock Rovers: Pohls; Honohan, Lopes, Kavanagh; Watts, Noonan (Kenny, 60); Burns, Nugent, Clarke; Gaffney (Britton, 79), Greene.
Galway United: Clarke; Esua, Slevin (O’Keeffe, 90+3), Brouder, Kazeem; McCormack, Borden (Hickey, 90+5); Dervin (Walsh, h-t), Hurley (Nugent, 85), McCarthy (Donelon, 85); O’Sullivan.
Referee: David Dunne (Dublin).
Attendance: 5,629.