|
|
|
Sligo Rovers 0-3 Shelbourne
Shelbourne's Stephen Geoghegan finished last season as the division's top scorer but then spent the summer laid low with TB. Unfortunately for Rovers he's back to his best scoring his fourth goal in three games and contributing heavily to the game's two others.
Sligo must have wondered what had hit them in the second half for through the first they had competed well with the locals, causing problems through the centre and down the left although notably not to any great extent in front of goal where Pat Scully, Tony McCarthy and Alan Gough all looked solid.
Falcon Rose did threaten on a couple of occasions, setting Steve Jones away down the right after 24 minutes, when Gough timed the sprint off his line well, and then running rings around Declan Geoghegan only to misjudge what looked certain to be a dangerous cross.
At the other end Dessie Baker seemed more central to the action than his striking partner but after the teenager had fired just wide, Geoghegan gave a glimpse of what he is capable of when slipping the ball past Lee Shearer and then winning a corner when heavily outnumbered in front of goal.
Padraig Moran missed Sligo's best chance of the game. In the 40th minute he was through on goal and slipped the ball past both Gough and the post when he looked more likely to score.
Five minutes into the second half, though, Baker made the breakthrough for Shels. He did well initially to move the ball out of the Shelbourne half but his pass was poor. Geoghegan dropped back well to meet it, however, and when the defenders made the error of standing off, he sent the ball soaring over Mark Westhead and into the top right corner from the edge of the area.
A few seconds later he overhit an attempt to replicate the goal when Reid slipped up and 15 minutes later it was his presence behind Ian Lynch that forced the long serving Rovers centre half to turn Mark Rutherford's low ball from the left past his own goalkeeper.
Rutherford, in this superb form himself since the summer break, might have added the third near the end when he headed just over but two minutes from time Geoghegan sent Baker through and the former Manchester United man, given plenty of time to glance up and pick his spot, powered the ball low, across the face of the goal and into the bottom left corner.
Shels were slightly flattered by the scoreline, but it makes up for last week when Sligo were lucky to only lose by a goal to Pats.
SLIGO ROVERS: Westhead; Cobussen, Shearer, Lynch, Hutchinson; Jones, Thew, Reid, Moran; Rose, Regis. Subs: Berks for Cobussen (58 mins).
 |
Second defeat to a Dublin team in a week. |
Get your own Free Home Page