Premier Division: Shamrock Rovers 1 (Grant 64) St Patrick’s Athletic 0
Danny Grant settled this tactical Dublin Derby before 8,093 supporters in Tallaght Stadium and the Virgin Media television audience.
There was little fanfare when Grant recently swapped Bohemians for Shamrock Rovers. An attacker by trade, he has been forced to fit into Stephen Bradley’s wing back system as Darragh Burns and Neil Farruiga swapped the League of Ireland for the fourth tier of English football.
The 25-year-old has operated on the left and right as a Swiss army knife, plugging whatever gap Rovers need plugging.
As St Patrick’s Athletic threatened to grab hold of this contest around the hour mark, Grant picked up possession wide right a good 60 metres from goal. The St Pat’s defence was not set so he stormed inside Tom Grivosti, which forced the back-pedalling Joe Redmond and Barry Baggley to invite the clean finish.
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“Buzzing,” he said afterwards. “It is a chance to kick-start the season.”
Grant’s first goal for Rovers was enough to settle this meeting of title contenders as results elsewhere conspired to bunch the Dublin clubs in an convoluted midtable.
Drogheda United went top of the Premier Division after a Warren Davis screamer at Tolka Park handed champions Shelbourne their first loss of the season.
The result of the night, however, was in Waterford as Colm Whelan scored a first-half hat-trick to secure a much needed 3-0 win for Bohemians at the RSC.
Back in Tallaght, Stephen Kenny came with a plan to stymie Rovers. Essentially, St Pat’s went man on man as Mason Melia was handed a working brief in the number 10 slot with Jake Mulraney and Zach Elbouzedi either side of the teenager while Chris Forrester and Baggley manned the midfield barricades.
Tactically, it was the smart approach. Visually, it turned the game into a cautious chess match.
Baggley came into the St Pat’s team after Monday’s 2-0 defeat of Derry City to dilute Graham Burke’s creative juices. The midfielder took to his man-marking duties with relish.
Not so long ago, Kenny was considering Mulraney for international selection. Here he counted on the winger’s curving deliveries into the Rovers box to break the stalemate.
Mulraney earned a yellow card for diving after minimal contact from Dan Cleary. A second coming together in the box should have resulted in referee Rob Hennessy sending Mulraney off or awarding a penalty. Instead, the official waved play on.
Melia struggled to find space to turn and test Ed McGinty in the Rovers goal. In fact, there was a combined total of zero shots on target in the first-half. At least Rovers ripped off five inaccurate attempts.
The Kenny plan was audible: “We got to move it quicker (in transition),” he implored Joe Redmond as the broad-shouldered centre back strolled over halfway.
Josh Honohan was included this week in Heimir Hallgrímsson’s provisional 40-man Republic of Ireland squad for the Nations League relegation play-offs against Bulgaria.
Yet Hallgrímsson choose The Late Late Show couch over a trip to Tallaght to assess whether the 23-year-old can do a job for his country.
The Ireland manager is due at West Brom on Saturday to catch Mikey Johnston and Jayson Molumby against QPR and Jimmy Dunne at 3pm before a 25-minute spin from the Hawthorns to Molineux to watch Matt Doherty in action for Wolves against Everton and Jake O’Brien in the 8pm kick-off.
Honohan, like every other wide player on display, got on the ball plenty of times only to be blocked by St Pat’s dogged right back Axel Sjöberg.
The Swede did gift Aaron Green a chance on 55 minutes, but the veteran striker’s lob landed on the roof of Joe Anang’s net.
Elsewhere, Galway United secured a 1-1 draw away to Derry and Sligo Rovers versus Cork City also finished 1-1.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: McGinty; Cleary, Lopes, O’Sullivan; Grant, Healy, Watts (Byrne, 71 mins), McEneff (O’Neill, 84), Honohan; Burke (Noonan, 70); Greene (Gaffney, 78).
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Anang; Sjoberg, Redmond, Grivosti (Turner, 79 mins), Breslin (Kazeem, 57); Baggley, Forrester; Elbouzedi, Melia (Kavanagh, 70), Mulraney (Power, 70); Keena.
Referee: R Hennessy.
