In the Southern Elite Division there was a real surprise, as high-flying Cobh Ramblers suffered a real bruising 5-0 defeat to Shamrock Rovers. An Aaron Dobbs hat-trick and a brace from Sean Boyd moved the Tallaght side into the top half of the table.
Rovers manager Aidan Price said, “Great to see Aaron score a hat trick, some of his finishes were very impressive and he could have got another few as well.”
“It was also great to get the win after the break as the lads have worked really hard over the period.”
On changes to be squad, Price said “Luke Rossiter has decided to leave us and we will have some players coming in to train, but squad is tight at the moment so there won’t be too much happening.”
Check out a full photo gallery of the match here
As for Cobh manager Declan Coleman, “Naturally we’re very disappointed with both the result and the performance. We weren’t good enough for the majority of the game, although I thought that the first half hour of the game we looked quite good.”
“We gave away some poor goals from our point of view, and after that the heads seemed to really drop. However, even at 2-0 we still thought we could get something out of the second half of the game.”
“Of course, looking back now that seems laughable. Our second half performance was absolutely atrocious and we really need to just put that behind us and move on to preparing for the rest of the season, starting with the cup game against Waterford next week.”
“With regards to players coming in and out over the break, we have released Ciaran Kearney and Patrick Crowley, both of whom intend on moving to the US for scholarships. We have signed Jack Allen and Stephen O’Connor from Lakewood Athletic in Cork. There may be some more players coming in over the next week or so, although we wouldn’t think there will be anybody else leaving at the moment.”
UCD sit on top of the Division, leap-frogging Cobh after beating Bray Wanderers 3-1. Kevin Coffey, Andrew O’Reilly and Yoyo Mahdy with the goals for the students.
UCD’s Darren Burke said, “Both teams struggled to get an early foothold in the game, but we began to exert some control after 15 minutes.”
“The team were patient in possession and utilised the threat of the returning Neil Farrugia (out since the opening day) and Kevin Coffey on either flank of a 1-4-3-3 formation.”
“Farrugia had the first sight of goal but his shot was blocked when crowded out by the Bray defence, who doubled up on him at every opportunity.”
“After a succession of corners we took the lead after 26 minutes. A neat inter-change of passes between Kevin Coffey, Evan Farrell and Yoyo Mahdy saw the latter thread a disguised through ball to Coffey, who slid the ball under the Bray goalkeeper.”
“We got well on top thereafter and doubled our lead in the 42nd minute via a corner, which was dispatched by a well-timed volley from captain Andy O’ Reilly at the back post.”
“Just before half-time we went 3-0 up. Neil Farrugia broke swiftly down the left and unselfishly squared the ball to Mahdy just inside the box, and he duly found the roof of the net with a well struck finish.”
“We continued to pass the ball with control and assurance in the second half. Farrugia and Coffey were threatening again and both had good efforts narrowly go wide. Sean Quinn and Conor Crowley dictated play from central midfield.”
“”It was a good overall team performance. The comfortable lead at half time along with making five substitutions took the edge out of our play in the second half.”
Bray’s Marc Kenny, “I think the break hit us at a bad time, stopped all our momentum, also having 3 players away on holidays didn’t help.”
“In saying all that, I’ve got to give UCD a lot of credit. They worked harder, created more chances, and basically won the game in the first half.”
“We have to date released 3 players with possibly 2/3 more to follow. We hope to bring 2 players in and we’re going to use more U-17 players. For us now it’s about introducing our U-17’s and hanging on to our better players for next season.”
Cork remain in third place following a 1-1 draw with Cabinteely. Alec Byrne had the Leesiders one up with thirteen minutes left, only for Cabo to hit back almost immediately with a goal from Ross Maloney.
Cabinteely’s John Paul Kelly, “Happy with the performance over all. Always a hard place to go away and get anything. Cork had some good chances in the first half and I thought we had some really good chances in the second. I can’t fault the effort all the team put in. They all worked really hard for each other which is great to see.”
Bottom side Wexford played out a 1-1 draw with fourth-placed Limerick.
Wexford’s Thomas O’Connor was bar far the happier of the two coaches following the game, “It was a perfect day for a game In Limerick. We started quite well and had a decent patch early in the game having a lot of possession but without ever troubling a very good Limerick side.”
“We conceded a goal early in the first period of the game, one that we probably could have done better to stop, and this could have been curtains for us, But we were delighted with the response from the players, they really dug deep and played some very good football and got just rewards with a bit of gutsy play from Danny Doyle, and he saw his chance hit the back of the net.”
“Danny has been with the first team the last number of weeks and having his quality coming back into the side was a massive plus in this game when we had so many new faces in the squad.”
“We had a few half chances before the half and Limerick had a great 1 v 1 saved by Jason McGuire in goal he stood big and pulled off a great save.”
“In the second half we continued to play football when we could but had to be cautious of limericks danger on the cross-field pass, so we didn’t leave as many gaps for that ball. We missed two 1 v 1 opportunities ourselves, with bad decision making being the reason the ball doesn’t hit the net, but it was very encouraging to see us create these chances against such a good side.”
“Yaw Aboagye came in for Danny Doyle and had two decent chances also. Overall it was a good game of football. Limerick played some lovely stuff as did we, it was good to see both teams express themselves on the football field.”
Jason McGuire had a great game, as distribution wise he was excellent. Jack Gallagher from our U-17 side also had a great game and showed great maturity as a defender at times throughout the second half especially.”
“We have a host of home games coming up over the next few weeks and will be hoping to build on the last two results on our travels.”
Limerick’s Tommy Barrett, “I felt we we were not at our best yesterday and found it hard to break down a Wexford team who were very well organised. Wexford were much better than us on the day, particularly in the second half. Willie Armshaw from Cork is signing in July.
Waterford United were 2-1 winners over Galway United. A Darragh Power goal late in added time gave Waterford all three points and moved them into mid-table.
Photo Credits;
Robert Goggins (Shamrock Rovers)
Cork City FC
Wexford FC