Soccer

Shamrock Rovers put five past hapless Finn Harps in Tallaght

Result and performance just the tonic for Hoops ahead of trip to Gent in Europa Conference League

Rovers’ Neil Farrugia celebrates scoring the first goal of the game with Aaron Greene. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Rovers’ Neil Farrugia celebrates scoring the first goal of the game with Aaron Greene. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Paul Buttner
Sun Sept 11 2022 - 22:12

Shamrock Rovers 5 Finn Harps 1

Neil Farrugia scored his first goals in two years with a well-taken double helping to down hapless Finn Harps at Tallaght Stadium.

The result and performance was just the tonic Shamrock Rovers would have wanted ahead of their trip to face Gent in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.

A clean sweep of four wins over Harps this season sees Stephen Bradley’s champions move four points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand.

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Following UCD’s win over Dundalk on Friday night, the defeat leaves Harps bottom.

Dominating from the start, Rovers were ahead after eight minutes. Jack Byrne fed Andy Lyons whose drive was parried by goalkeeper James McKeown. Farrugia nicked the loose ball off the toe of a sluggish Gary Boylan to blast to the roof of the net.

Byrne, who sliced wide, and Lyons, shooting straight at McKeown, had chances before a soft penalty allowed

Rovers to double their lead in the 36th minute.

Ryan Rainey was harshly adjudged to have impeded Aaron Greene as they jumped for Rory Gaffney’s cross. Gaffney scored emphatically from 12 yards for his 11th goal of the season.

Rovers extended their lead further in the 40th minute. Farrugia and Gaffney combined well down the right for Lyons to apply the finish for his ninth strike of the year with a rising first time shot past McKeown.

The rout continued three minutes later, Byrne sliding a ball through for Farrugia to finish confidently.

Harps got a fine goal back on 57 minutes, Eric McWoods providing an assist for substitute Jaime Siaj to blast a powerful shot past Alan Mannus.

The Jordanian rattled the Rovers crossbar with a spectacular scissor kick minutes later before Rovers regained their four-goal advantage on 62 minutes.

Substitute Aidomo Emakhu’s close range shot from Gaffney’s cross was parried by McKeown to give Byrne a simple finish.

Shamrock Rovers: Mannus; Gannon, Cleary, Grace; O’Neill (Tetteh, 64), Kavanagh; Farrugia (Power, 64), Byrne, Lyons (Serdeniuk, h-t); Greene (Emakhu, h-t), Gaffney (Burke, 64).

Finn Harps: McKeown; Boyle, Slevin (Carrillo, 85), Boylan (Nicolson, 72); Connolly, M’Zeyi; Rainey, Duncan (Siaj, h-t), McNamee (Jones, 64); Mihaljevic, McWoods (McCaffrey, 85).

Referee: Derek Tomney (Dublin).

Attendance: 2,859