Soccer

Shamrock Rovers stay on course for Conference League knock-out stages with win over The New Saints

Stephen Bradley’s team way above the standard offered by Welsh visitors

Johnny Kenny scores Shamrock Rovers' first goal against The New Saints at Tallaght Stadium. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Johnny Kenny scores Shamrock Rovers' first goal against The New Saints at Tallaght Stadium. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Gavin Cummiskey at Tallaght Stadium
Thu Nov 07 2024 - 20:28
Uefa Conference League: Shamrock Rovers 2 (Kenny 23, Watts 38) 1 The New Saints (Williams 15)

Another night of European football down Whitestown Way, another €400,000 banked by Shamrock Rovers as goals from Johnny Kenny and Dylan Watts kept the Hoops on course to reach the knock-out rounds of the Uefa Conference League in 2025.

Stephen Bradley’s men could have registered a more emphatic win but The New Saints struggled to trouble them, in and out of possession. It was a mismatch throughout, despite a Jordan Williams strike giving the Welsh side an early lead.

The Rovers faithful packed into Tallaght Stadium’s 10,000 seats last Friday to witness their team fall agonisingly short of a fifth successive League of Ireland title. A crowd of 6,108 showed up on Thursday night with many put off by a 5.45pm kick-off smack in the middle of rush-hour Dublin traffic.

Them’s the Uefa breaks. The timing is offset by the prize money. If these results keep coming, Rovers will gratefully accept €5 million from Uefa, which would turn the club into a profitmaking business after a €2.4 million loss in 2023.

READ MORE

With the regular season over, HJK Helsinki have agreed to play two friendlies in Dublin on November 21st and 22nd, so Bradley’s squad stays match-fit for the Conference run-in. Following a trip to Vienna to face Rapid Vienna on November 28th, Borac from Bosnia come to Tallaght and Rovers visit Stamford Bridge for a glamour tie against Chelsea on December 19th.

Unlike the group stages in 2022, they are not making up the numbers. Victory over the only professional Welsh club leaves them inside the league’s top eight and automatic qualification to the last 16, which comes with a bonus of €800,000.

TNS may be a professional operation but an annual budget of €1.44 million is comparable to a second-tier Irish club. And not necessarily one capable of promotion. Uefa continue to spread the cash, increasing the League of Ireland solidarity fund to over €300,000 per club (that does not qualify for Europe), but the standard of opposition has dropped significantly.

Dylan Watts celebrates with Daragh Burns after scoring for Shamrock Rovers. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Dylan Watts celebrates with Daragh Burns after scoring for Shamrock Rovers. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho

As Rovers lost their title to Shelbourne this season, most weeks they faced stiffer domestic opposition than Larne and TNS. It bodes well for the short-term future of the Irish game; Shels and St Patrick’s Athletic would hold their own in Europe’s third tier. Certainly against the champions of Wales and Northern Ireland.

An English journeyman beat a German goalkeeper to claim the opening goal. Williams supplied the initial cross for a Declan McManus header to be saved by Leon Pohls, but Rovers failed to clear the danger and Ryan Brobbel’s delivery found the unmarked Williams after a flick by McManus.

Rovers’ usually reliable back three of Lee Grace, Pico Lopes and Daniel Cleary shared the blame as Grace was beaten to the end line by Brobbel, McManus held off Lopes and Cleary failed to intercept the ball from bobbling towards Williams.

Inside eight minutes the handful of fans from a club that originated in the border village of Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain in 1959, were silenced when Kenny rifled his 17th goal of the season. The Ireland under-21 striker, on loan from Celtic, held off Daniel Davies to score off the crossbar after deceptive passing by Joshua Honohan and Neil Farrugia.

Rovers were a cut above the visitors as Darragh Burns proved before half-time when his curling cross was met by Watts, one of four attackers flooding the six-yard box.

As the contest petered out in the second half, and Rovers played keep-ball, Bradley injected the game with the two most naturally gifted midfielders living in Ireland.

Jack Byrne and Graham Burke, tasked with protecting a 2-1 lead, went about adding an insurance goal. Byrne almost sneaked an angled free-kick inside the Saints’ near post before Burke forced a fine save from Connor Roberts in injury-time.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Pohls; Cleary, Lopes, Grace; Burns (Burke 69), Watts (Nugent 85), Poom (O’Neill 85), Honohan; McEneff (Byrne 69), Farrugia; Kenny (Green 79).

THE NEW SAINTS: Roberts; Daniels, Davies, Bodenham, Redmond; Brobbel, Smith, Williams, Holden (Clark 75); Williams (Wilson 83), McManus.

Referee: Omer Barbiro (Israel).

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey is The Irish Times' Soccer Correspondent