Shamrock Rovers 2 Shelbourne 2
Shamrock Rovers were forced to share the spoils in a hugely entertaining Ringsend derby in front of 6,835, coming from behind to salvage a point with Damien Duff’s impressive Shelbourne.
In their third Dublin derby in a week, the hosts had to come from behind to rescue what could be a valuable point to maintain their unbeaten run in the league.
The visitors had gone in front after 18-minutes. Graham Burke scored an own goal, after he swiped wildly at Matty Smith’s low cross and saw the ball fly into his own net off the post.
Just five minutes into the second half Shels doubled their lead thanks to a lightning quick break from the dynamic duo of Jack Moylan and Matty Smith. The former set up his fellow frontman, Smith, who showed great composure to slot home first time.
But on the 100th anniversary of their very first league title, Rovers forced their way back when Graham Burke halved the deficit moments later thanks to an outstanding left footed strike from distance and with a quarter of an hour remaining, substitute Roberto Lopes powered home a header to make it all square.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Alan Mannus, Neil Farrugia, Sean Hoare, Lee Grace, Dan Cleary (Roberto Lopes, 68′), Sean Kavanagh (Gary O’Neill, 45′), Dylan Watts (Richie Towell, 45′), Markus Poom, Jack Byrne, Graham Burke, Rory Gaffney (Johnny Kenny, 63′)
SHELBOURNE: Conor Kearns, Shane Farrell, Andrew Quinn, Shane Griffin, Paddy Barrett, Tyreke Wilson, JJ Lunney, Brian McManus (Kameron Ledwidge, 58′), Evan Caffrey, Matty Smith (Kyle Robinson, 90+2), Jack Moylan (Kian Leavy, 82′)
Referee: Neil Doyle (Dublin)
Bohemians 2 St Patrick’s Athletic 3
Three goals in 11 first-half minutes were crucial at Dalymount Park as St Patrick’s Athletic moved up to second with a nail-biting victory over league leaders Bohemians.
Despite the concession of an early goal to Adam McDonnell, the Saints spectacularly took control of the proceedings with quick-fire contributions from Chris Forrester, Jason McClelland and Mark Doyle. Bohs did pull one back through Dean Wiliams after Jordan Flores had been red carded and while they emerged on the wrong side of the result, the Gypsies do remain at the summit of the top-flight table.
Although they suffered a 2-0 reversal at home to champions Shamrock Rovers seven days earlier, Bohs cemented their status as Premier Division pacesetters with a 1-0 success against Derry City on Monday. There was just 14 minutes gone when Declan Devine’s charges broke the deadlock in this contest – McDonnell finishing superbly into the bottom right-hand corner.
It looked set to be a difficult night at the office for their Inchicore counterparts, but Pat’s remarkably found themselves in the ascendancy by the first-quarter mark. Just five minutes after falling behind, the Saints were back on level terms when a Forrester corner on the left-wing appeared to bounce all the way past opposition netminder James Talbot.
Buoyed by this equaliser, the visitors edged in front when McClelland turned home Anto Breslin’s pinpoint delivery in the 23rd-minute. Bohs were left shell-shocked by this stunning scoring blitz from Pat’s and their woes were further compounded on the half-hour.
Jamie Lennon’s outstanding through ball set Eoin Doyle free on goal and while the former Preston North End striker had his subsequent strike saved by Talbot, the Bohs number one couldn’t keep out a rebounded effort from a tight angle by his namesake Mark Doyle.
This ultimately left the league leaders 3-1 adrift at the interval, but of equal concern to Devine was the fact his side were reduced to 10 men after Flores was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Lennon.
Yet the Gypsies displayed admirable resilience when faced with a numerical deficiency and gave themselves a fighting chance just beyond the hour mark.
When these two teams met a little over a month ago at Richmond Park, Williams scored off the bench to seal a 2-0 triumph. He was also introduced in this game as part of a triple substitution by Devine and finished off a sweeping move on 62 minutes to reignite the Bohs challenge.
The four-time league winners had a glorious opportunity to get themselves back on level terms moments later, but Dylan Connolly couldn’t divert his shot beyond the reach of Dean Lyness.
In a frantic finale that saw the game being held up for several minutes so that a spectator could receive medical attention, a nervy St Pat’s lost their own substitute Thomas Lonergan to a second yellow card before eventually holding out for all three points.
BOHEMIANS: Talbot; Benn (Twardek, 59 mins), Horton, Radkowski, Kirk; Buckley, Flores; Connolly (O’Sullivan, 72 mins), McDonnell (Clarke, 59 mins), McDaid (Williams, 59 mins); Afolabi.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Lyness; Curtis, Lewis, McGrath, Breslin; Lennon (Carty, 76 mins), Murphy (Timmermans, 67 mins), Forrester; McClelland (Kreida, 67 mins), E Doyle (Lonergan, 82 mins), M Doyle (Atakayi, 82 mins).
Referee: P McLaughlin (Donegal).
UCD 1 Cork City 0
An early strike from Ciaran Behan brought UCD their first win of the season in the clash of the bottom two at the UCD Bowl.
Andy Myler’s students remain at the foot of the table but reduce the gap on ninth-place Cork to four points. Cork may have won the first meeting of the sides when cruising to a 4-0 victory at Turner’s Cross early last month.
But they had a rude awakening here as UCD started on the front foot and punished them to take the lead after just 53 seconds, for what would prove the only goal of the night.
Mark Dignam was the architect, tigerishly winning the ball off a sluggish Joe O’Brien-Whitmarsh before then skilfully skipping past Aaron Bolger.
He then laid the ball off to Behan who rifled a low drive past James Corcoran for his second goal of the season.
Cork were fortunate not to find themselves further behind on 20 minutes; College captain Jack Keaney having a shot deflected for a corner before Behan shot wide.
The visitors swapped Tunde Owolabi for Keating up top ahead of the second half to try to inject some urgency to their attack.
But despite enjoying more of the ball, they continued to struggle to create openings, UCD defending doggedly as Cork failed to register a shot on target in the second half.
UCD then finished the stronger with Behan hitting a post on 78 minutes, substitute Alex Nolan blazing the rebound over the top.
UCD: Moore; Osam (O’Regan, 76), Keaney, Wells (Norris, 73), Dempsey; Barr, Dignam; Behan, Keane, Higgins; Doyle (Nolan, 69).
CORK CITY: Corcoran; Honohan, Hakkinen, Gilchrist, Custovic (Coffey, 60); Bolger, Coleman; Murphy, O’Brien-Whitmarsh (Crowley, 83), Krezic (Varian, 83); Keating (Owolabi, h-t).
Referee: Adriano Reale (Kildare).
