Bohemians went top of the Northern Elite Division with a whopping 8-3 win over Monaghan/Cavan while in the Southern Elite Division UCD, last season’s Champions, went top with a 3-1 away to Waterford.
That big Bohemians victory saw another goal haul this weekend, following Derry City’s Cathal Farren last week, as Cian Fay also saw the back of the net four times.
Bohemians Manager, Graham Lawlor said, “Overall we’re satisfied with yesterday’s result. It’s always good to score 8 goals in a game, but let’s not forget we conceded three so there is still a lot of work to be done on all aspects of our game.”
“Cian Fay will take most of the plaudits because of his 4 goal haul but there were some really good performances on Saturday.”
“Cian is a real team player and quality centre-forward, and is lively around the box, but now he will get more attention from defenders so he needs to keep improving his game over the season and keep getting on the scoresheet.”
On the season ahead Lawlor said, “The ultimate aim for the season from myself and a superb backroom team is to help the current bunch of players get first team football at Bohemians FC.”
“Its widely known that Bohs have one of the smallest budget in the league so it’s vital we produce players every season and give them that opportunity to progress when earned.”
“With the help of Dave Henderson we recruited well in the off season and once again our u17s gave us some excellent young players that have progressed up to u19s this season.”
UCD manager Maciej Tarnogrodzki was very pleased with his sides win in Waterford, “Overall we are happy with our performance. From what I saw Waterford strengthened their team this season and we needed around 15-20 mins to get into our rhythm of play.”
“In first 15 mins we had to deal with many good long balls directed toward two Waterford strikers plus we conceded a goal during that period.”
“After that we started to control the game in the middle of the park through good link up play between three of our midfielders plus we started to build our actions from the back.”
“We created two very good chances in 1st half before we scored an equalizer (through a Sean Quinn header from Conor Crowley assist) but Waterford’s keeper made two very good saves to deny these two chances.”
“I think in the second half, for most part we were in control. Our midfielders Andy O’Reilly and Conor Crowley together with Sean Quinn were building up and linking very well with Yoyo Mahdi and our two wingers ( Kevin Coffey & Sean McDonald).”
“We were arriving more often into Waterford’s penalty area plus we had a good number of corners. We scored after one of these corners with Andy O’Reilly’s finish.”
“In 2nd half we were solid at the back with our centre-backs Joe Manley and Darragh Corcoran also building up our play, plus our goal-keeper Conor Kearns dealt very well with crosses into our box.”
“Our full-backs (Evan Farrell and Mark Dignam) also dealt very well with any danger coming from wide areas and supported the wingers in the offensive phase.”
“Everyone performed well and players who came on made incredible impact as well as putting more energy into the final stages of the game. Our 3rd goal came from the action of two subs after John O’Kane’s cross was converted into goal by Cian Ryan.”
“It was a good competitive game with great tempo throughout the 90 minutes and we had to work hard to beat Waterford.”
Cobh Ramblers followed up last week’s superb win over Shamrock Rovers with a 0-0 draw with Bray Wanderers. Ramblers boss Declan Coleman was happy, but thought they could have won the game.
Coleman said, “We were happy with the way we played and the point is a good one away from home.”
“We would have liked to have controlled the game a bit more after their red card and probably should have pushed on and showed more composure on the ball in the final third in the latter stages.”
“We’re still happy enough though because Bray are a good side and 4 points from the first 2 games isn’t a bad return and gives us something to build on as well as a confidence boost.”
St Patrick’s Athletic opened their campaign with a superb win against last week’s big winners Derry City. The game finished 4-2 after Pats had let a 2-goal lead slip just on half-time. Two goals in the second half from Neil Byrne and Aidan Keena, his second of the game, secured the points for Garrett Dodrill’s side.
Dodrill said afterwards, “Yeah delighted with parts of the performance. Scored some great goals but need to improve at the back as we were sloppy at times.”
“We moved the ball well in the first 30 mins and created a number of chances and we went 2 up and should have scored a 3rd.”
“We got sloppy then for a few min and Derry got 2 goals back to level it at half-time.”
“We got back to moving the ball better in second half and thankfully scored 2 more goals. We have 2 weeks now to work on the training ground to fix things before we play Shelbourne.”
He also spoke about Aidan Keena, who has played for Pats senior team this season, “He was very good yesterday. We are seeing his hard work on the training pitch pay off.”
“His first goal was a tap in after good work down the wing and excellent cross. His second was outstanding. Picking the ball up 40 yards out he drove at the Derry defence before shooting from 30 yards out with his weaker left foot into the top corner.”
“He was unlucky not to collect the match ball as he missed 2 other excellent chances from crosses into box in first half.”
“Hopefully he can keep up the hard work and score more than the 18 goals he got for us last season.”
Longford, after last week’s win over Athlone, lost 2-0 at home to Drogheda United.
Their Manager Graham Kane was very disappointed afterwards,”Dissapointing performance from us overall. We didn’t start the game well enough. Droghdea controlled large periods of the first half.”
“We didn’t create enough chances to deserve anything from game. The 2 goals we conceded are 2 defensive errors which is dissapointing, but the players and squad will learn from them and that’s the main thing. So we will re-group on Tuesday and plan for the next game.”
On the aims for the season Kane said, “My aim for the season is to develop players and the squad to progress to our 1st team. I am creating a development and learning enviornment for players to develop to progress that is my overall aim at the club.”
“But every game we play our players will learn something from each game so its important they are able to adapt to different scenarios.”
Sligo Rovers got their first win in a 1-0 win over Athlone Town. Manager Brian Dorrian was pleased to see out the win, “Good open game, we created some good chances which we didn’t take in the first half.”
“To be fair to Athlone they defended really well and tried to catch us on the counter attack. In the second half we upped our game and deserved to take the lead with a great goal by Jack Keaney.”
“In the last five minutes they piled on the pressure, but in fairness we defended really well. Athlone did have a couple of shouts for penalties, but they were turned down by the referee.”
Weekend’s Results;
Northern Elite Division
Bohemians 8 Monaghan/Cavan 3
Sligo Rovers 1 Athlone Town 0
St Patrick’s Athletic 4 Derry City 2
Longford Town 0 Drogheda United 2
Dundalk 0 Shelbourne 0
Southern Elite Division
Bray Wanderers 0 Cobh Ramblers 0
Shamrock Rovers 1 Cabinteely 1
Waterford 1 UCD 3
Cork City 1 Wexford 1
Limerick v Galway United Postponed
Photo Credits;
Martin Doherty Sports Photography
St Patrick’s Athletic Football Club