It was a very clinical performance by Shamrock Rovers as they comfortably beat Cobh at Tallaght Stadium.
Rovers went ahead as early as the fifth minute when Jack Kelly finished neatly in the box to beat Arthur Nganow in the Ramblers’ goal. The lively Dean Williams was tripped in the box by Sean Hayes in the 12th minute and although the ‘keeper saved Williams’ penalty Conor Grant picked up in the play that followed in the box to make it 2-0.
Kelly got his second in the 33rd minute and Williams made it 4-0 in the 60th minute following some delightful play from the Hoops. Williams made it 5-0 from the spot in the 69th minute and then five minutes later increased the score further with a shot through a crowded goal-mouth.
Rovers finished the game with 10 players but thankfully it wasn’t on account of a sending off. Having used all of their subs, Kelly had to come off but this didn’t affect them in any way and Kenny Cunningham inflicted further damage on Ramblers when he beat the ‘keeper from an angle in the 81st minute to make it an impressive 7-0.
Cobh boss Damien Rowe felt it was a harsh lesson for his young players, “A tough lesson for us as a team against a good team in Shamrock Rovers. Sometimes you have to admire the quality of the opposition, and on the day they were superb. We played as individuals, were second to everything.”
“We had no leader organising on the pitch, so it was a part of their development they won’t forget for a while.”
“It will be discussed and dealt with at training and then left in the past, and we move on to the home game against Bray next week, where I think you will see a reaction from todays result.”
“Best on day for us was Arthur Nagou and Jaze Kabia.”
St Pats Manager Jamie Moore was delighted with the performance, “We are really happy with the win and the performance, we were the better team from start to finish, with and without the ball, which is our aim going into every game.”
“We’ve been waiting a couple of weeks to start our season so it was good to get going with a good performance, five goals and a clean sheet.”
“Some of the goals were top class. Sean Mahon’s cross and Ryan Burke’s header for the second goal, Sean’s curling shot to make it 3-0 after a short corner, and the passing move from the back which ended with Sean getting his second goal.”
“We play passing football out from the back, so that clip of the fifth goal kind of sums up what we are trying to do.”
“We have lots of new players in the group and things have been going really well. Of the 18 man squad, 10 of them are new faces, and five new boys started the game yesterday. I was really pleased with how they all did and how the boys who came on impacted the game too.”
“We always speak to the boys about performance and performing to their very best in every game. That was the message in the Powerpoint presentation before they came. Each of them is expected to perform well in every game, with no excuses, and they’ve done that really well so far.”
“If they want to get to the top level of the game here or abroad, they can’t perform every now and again, it has to be every week and that’s a good thing. They know what’s expected and we’re planning for more of the same in another difficult game in Athlone on Saturday”
Check out all five St Pats goals here;
Longford Town beat Monaghan/Cavan 3-2 with Cian Cheevers helping himself to two goals.
Longford coach James Dermody said, “Real game of two halves. We dominated the first have and Patrick O’Sullivan scored a great individual goal. Monaghan got level 10 mins later when a poorly defended free kick was turned in by a free Monaghan player on the back post.”
“We then scored two more goals, both by Cian Cheevers who was on the end of two great through balls by Dragos Mamaliga”
“Second half was a different game. We sat back and allowed Monaghan to build some momentum. With about 15 mins to go Monaghan pulled a goal back to make 3-2. We managed to stay dogged and ended up winning 3-2, but Monaghan played their part and were unlucky not to come away with a point which their second half performance deserved, but the game should have been out of sight at half time.”
“Really happy with the first half performance as all our work on transition to attack was paying off, second half we sat back to much and allowed Monaghan to get back into the game.”
Dermody was full of praise for the opposition saying, “Credit has to go to the Monaghan/Cavan coaching staff and squad for not giving up and continuing to look for a comeback”
“From a development perspective this was a great learning experience for my squad and that for me is every bit as important for the coaches and players going forward than the result.”
Goals from Longford Town v Monaghan/Cavan;
Monaghan/Cavan coach Paul Smyth said, “We were disappointed not to get something out of Sunday’s game. We got punished again for defensive mistakes and found ourselves 3-1 down at half time.To our credit we done better in the second half and an equaliser would have been deserved if we had of got it.”
“Oisin Brady and Donnach Swinburne came on and had an effect on the game. Swinburne injected pace on the right side and Brady was a threat when he moved up top.”
“It is early in the campaign, but we are disappointed not to have points on the board. Hopefully we can correct than when we entertain Sligo Rovers this weekend”
Bohs boss Jimmy Mowlds was pleased after the win, “We were very happy to come away with a 3-1 win over Finn Harps. It’s never an easy game when you play them but 2 early goals from Sobe Nwaokolo and Lido Lotefa turned the game our way.”
“Aaron Lynch gave us a 3-0 lead at the beginning of the 2nd half and the only disappointing thing was conceding a late goal but overall we have to be happy with that result.”
Finn Harps manager Declan Boyle said that Bohs deserved their win, “On the day Bohs deserved their victory, they were better team on the day.”
“They scored from a corner for their first goal and the second goal was a bad defensive mistake, a back pass that fell short and they scored from the error as well.”
“Probably before they scored, we had two excellent opportunities to score and failed to take them and paid the price. Their third was a good team goal but collectively we were very poor.”
“Overall as a team I thought we didn’t play as well as we should have. Our best players on view on the day, where Keelan McGill, Darragh Ellison, and Corrie lee Bogan.”
“It was our first match and it was a disappointing performance and we will be looking for a positive response from the lads for our next match at home against Longford Town on Saturday.”
Athlone Town travelled to Oriel Park to take on Dundalk on Sunday. Having opened their campaign with a 2-0 win against Sligo Rovers they were in a very confident mood. On the excellent new playing surface at Oriel Park both sides served up a very open entertaining game. Athlone led 1-0 at the break thanks to a superb strike from full back John Rattigan.
John had scored a contender for goal of the season against Sligo and he did it again on Sunday, pushing forward with a good attacking move to give the home keeper no chance with another super strike.
Dundalk pressed hard in second half but Athlone’s defence were excellent where captain Evan Fahy was having an outstanding game.
However the concession of a needless penalty let Dundalk equalize where Kevin Kelly finished well.
Both sides had chances to score but right at the death Dundalk snached a winner to take all 3 points.
A very enjoyable game where both sides tried and succeeded in playing the right way. Niall Higgins and Cieran Burns were very good in the Athlone midfield and when introduced at half time Patrick Kelly did very well.
Athlone Town go again next saturday when St Pats are the visitors to the Athlone Town Stadium.
Wexford and Limerick played out a very entertaining 3-3- draw, with Limerick coming from 3-0 down to grab a point.
Wexford manager Derek O’Brien was understandably disappointed, “It was a game that we left behind. Having been 3-0 up it is disappointing to not get the win.”
“We played very well in the first half but Limerick really pushed us back in the second half and deservedly drew level, however after they were reduced to 10 men it was disappointing not to get the winner.”
“Liam Berry and Brandon Deady were both involved in our goals today as they were in our last game against Cobh. Liam scored two and had the assist for Brandon’s goal so the two are linking up very well.”
“It was a very entertaining game overall, with both teams really playing well in the heat. There won’t be much separating a lot of the teams come the end of the season.”
Limerick’s Derek McCarthy said, “It was our first game of the season and the early part of the game you could see the lack of match practice our lads had.”
“We went three goals behind in the first 30 minutes from three poor mistakes. The first, a misplaced pass back from Brandon OHalloran, the second, a shot from distance which I know my keeper Mike Garrihy will be the first to admit he should have done better with, the third was a needless foul by Josh O’Rahilly in the penalty box.”
“We got ourselves back into the game just before half time when Josh put an excellent ball into the box which Darragh Lowth got on the end of. His shot was blocked and fell to Bradley McNamara who stabbed the ball home”
“At half time we made three changes with each player making an impact. Liam O’Sullivan who replaced Brandon in midfield got on the end of a delivery by Dylan Kelly Higgins to bring us back into the game. Mike Conlon, who replaced Lee Devitt then got on the end of a through ball by Stephen Talty to smash the ball home and get the equaliser for us.”
“At that stage I felt we would go on and get the winner but for a very harsh second booking to Tomas O’Connor we were reduced to 10 men.”
“Wexford pushed hard to regain the lead but for some last ditch efforts and some excellent defending from Keith Ryan in particular.”
“In the end we were happy with the point especially considering the position we were in after 30 minutes. The boys showed great character and certainly something we can build on. Special mention to the physical efforts of Bradley McNamara and Darragh Lowth who 24 hours earlier were part of the team that drew 3-3 with UCD.”
The Kerry League suffered a 6-2 defeat to an impressive Waterford.
Kerry League boss Darren Aherne said, “I felt we did very well in the first 45 mins and to be honest a little disappointed to go in 1-1 at the break.
“However conceding goals at 56, 60, 65 and 67 minutes tells its own story.”
“It will be a tough week ahead to try and raise our spirits before UCD away next Sunday.”
“The focus will be on defending in a more acceptable manner this coming week at training and look to try and get something out of next weekend’s game.”
Aherne was delighted with the support his young side received saying, “The support we got at home yesterday was magnificent and it means a lot to myself and the players, and it seemed to bring out the very best in Martin Coughlan who had a fine game.”
Waterford coach Gary Hunt said , “It was great to get our first win of the season and look to now build on this moving forward.”
“To Kerry’s credit they made it hard for us in the first half but we scored goals at crucial times in the second half to give us the upper hand.”
“Greg Waters came into midfield and acquitted himself quite well as did Jack O’Donnell, but Oisin Knox scoring four goals really stood out. His energy is infectious amongst the rest of the team and he is starting to add the quality to his game now which is pleasing for all concerned.”
“Looking forward to hosting Galway this week, the players will be eager to go again after an impressive victory last time out. The lads are pushing each other every week to improve.”
Cork City beat UCD 1-0 with a goal from Cian Murphy.
Cork boss Brendan O’Sullivan “Very hard fought 1-0 victory away to well organised UCD.”
“It was a high quality game with very little in it although we thought we might have deserved another goal.”
“Cian Murphy got his third of the season, a great solo effort and powerful finish.”
“Dale Holland dominated the midfield and Conor Bowdren’s pace caused UCD a lot of trouble particularly in first half.”
“Overall we were delighted with the performance, the result and the clean sheet however we talked afterwards about how we still have a lot to work on as individuals and as a team.”
Photo Credits;
St Patrick’s Athletic
Robert Goggins (Shamrock Rovers)
Stephen Burke (Bohemians)