St Patrick’s Athletic 2 Cork City 3
Cork started this game on the back foot, but found themselves 2-0 to the good after just eleven minutes. Some poor defending from St Pats, a bad habit they got into last season, led to two counter-attacking goals. New midfield signing from Derry City Barry McNamee scored the season’s opening goal when he was on hand at the back post to score following a good cross from Graham Cummins. Cummins himself scored the second, a volley from Karl Sheppard’s flick-on.
However, the game was turned on it’s head just before the half-hour when Cummins, on his league debut, was adjudged to have elbowed Kevin Toner in the face when jumping for a high ball and received a straight red-card.
St Pats got back into the game just minutes later when their captain Ian Bermingham scored following a vicious cross from a corner. City were rocked at that stage and were glad to hear the half-time whistle. But straight from the kick-off it was all-square. A cross from that man Bermingham, City failed to deal with it and there was Conan Byrne to fire it home.
At that stage it was all Pats, and if there was likely to be a winner it would likely come from them.
But Cork, if nothing else are hugely resilient, and up popped Kieran Sadlier to score direct from a corner with just ten minutes remaining. City boss John Caulfield earlier in the week singled out the talented Sadlier to step up this season, and his goal proved to be the match-winner as City held on to take all three points.
It’s a very big win for Cork, considering the circumstances, but now look to be without their main striker Cummins for at least a fortnight.
Caulfield said afterwards, "Its a tremendous three points. The lads showed great determination in the second half. 2-0 up, two fantastic goals, thought we might get a third. Then Graham gets sent off, we didn't really see the incident. The game changes, then it's 11 v 10 with 65 minutes to go in the game. When it went to 2-2 you fear the worst, but when Gearoid Morrissey came on we started getting back up the pitch, Sadlier's corner went straight in, Benno's claiming he got a touch, but it's a massive three points for us."
Bohemians 3 Shamrock Rovers 1
Much was expected of the opening Dublin Derby of the season, but as is often the case, it probably didn't live up to those lofty expectations. However, ask any Bohs supporters after the game and they'll be more than happy to have claimed the bragging rights until their next meeting.
Rovers started the brighter, with Graham Burke making inroads, and they found a breakthrough on 22 minutes when Burke's overhead kick smashed off the upright and fell straight to the captain Ronan Finn to score. The game fell into a lull period for a time after that and at half-time Rovers led 1-0.
In the second half Bohemians came more and more into the game. New signing Eoghan Stokes replaced Kevin Delaney for his debut, and in a quick-fire ten minute spell they took the game by the scruff of the neck. They scored three times, two of them headers by Dan Casey and a sweet strike from Paddy Kavanagh to take the points. Casey's first was a wonderful header from a right-wing corner, while his second was a looping header over Kevin Horgan in the Rovers goal. In between that Kavanagh was played through on goal by Keith Ward and his finish was superb as he sent the Bohs fans into hysteria.
Keith Long was a very happy man after the game, “It was a scrappy game, a real lack of quality for long periods of the game. I don’t think we did a lot wrong to go in 1-0 down at half-time. It was a disappointing goal to concede, we missed a header and Gary Shaw flicks it on. We knew we were in it at half-time if we could play better, and in the second half we did play little better. We won more 50/50’s in their half. We got goals from set pieces, through great deliveries from Keith Ward. Once Paddy Kavanagh scores the second we closed out the game pretty comfortably, while Casey put the icing on the cake with the third.”
Speaking to the man-of-the-match and 2-goal hero Dan Casey (pictured above) after the game, he told us, “It was unreal. Great to win a Derby, especially when it was such a hard game, coming from being behind. They’re a very good team and it was good to win. It’s always nice to get a goal, two was even better. Being named as the man-of-the-match was great too, but the main thing was getting the win for both lads and the fans. But, it all mean nothing if we don't push on and get a result against Limerick next week.”
Dundalk 0 Bray Wanderers 0
Last season’s league runners-up Dundalk were most people’s fancy of the banker of the night as they faced troubled Bray Wanderers. While Dundalk lost the President’s Cup to Cork last week they had looked very good in the opening half, taking a 2-0 lead, and the fans were of the opinion beforehand that it was only a matter of time before the hosts would open the scoring.
They did start the game well, with a couple of chances for Robbie Benson, but once Bray got into the game they grew in confidence. They set up well defensively, and tried to catch Dundalk on the break, something they did with some success. Only for keeper Gary Rogers late on Bray could have come away with all three points, as he denied their star striker Aaron Greene.
Dundalk boss Stephen Kenny said afterwards, "Considering the amount of possession we had, it didn't translate to the number of chances we would have wanted. We didn't move the ball quickly enough. We lacked a little bit of creativity overall. We had some chances, all the chances seemed to fall to Robbie Benson tonight, but they didn't go in for go in for him. We've had rampant flu in the squad, but we can't use that as an excuse. The league table won't say that at the end of the season! I'm disappointed that we didn't win tonight."
Bray Wanderers defender Sean Heaney told us after the game, “I thought we executed our game plan perfectly on Friday night. We knew if we could keep them out at our end that our front 4 would cause them problems, which they did. We were probably unlucky not to take all 3 points in the end but we’ll take the point and move onto next week.”
“We knew going there that we could get something from the game. The game plan was to keep our shape and try catch them on the break, which we did a couple of times and probably had the better chances in the game, but if you offered us a point before the game we definitely would’ve taken it.”
Waterford 2 Derry City 1
Waterford’s big night, as they returned to the Premier Division for the first time in 10 years, nearly didn’t go ahead. After incessant rain in Waterford during the day the pitch at the RSC had to pass a couple of pitch Inspections (pictured below) before getting the go ahead.
Once the game did get underway both sides found the wet pitch very uncomfortable, but it was the visitors who edged in front on 19 minutes. New boy Armin Aganovic, formerly of Galway United, powered home a header from a cross by Aaron McEneff to put a dampener (pardon the pun) on the big crowds enthusiasm.
It was another former Galway United Man who got the blues their equaliser just b fore half-time. Midfielder Gavan Holohan jinxed past three Derry players before shooting for goal. The ball took a wicked deflection of goalkeeper Ger Doherty before hitting the back of the net.
Thirteen minutes form the end local lad Dean O'Halloran pounced to score, after good work down the left-hand side from Stanley Aborah and Gavan Holohan. Holohan's cross found O'Halloran and he amade no mistake from about eight yards out. That goal sent the crowd into delirium at the RSC and they celebrated in style.
Waterford’s Alan Reynolds said, “This was a great night for the club, the supporters and all the volunteers who were on hand to ensure that the game went ahead, because it was really touch and go for a while. It was nice to get off with a win, especially having gone behind in the match.”
“It was brilliant that we were able to bounce back so I was happy with that end of it. I have to say that there is a good group of players there but we’re not getting carried away with it. It’s only one win but it’s important to get the win under our belt and move on to next week.”
“The lads will come back in Monday and we’ll get ourselves ready for that game. That’s what we ask for. It’s nice to have a Munster derby again to look forward to although we’ll treat Cork like every other team. They are the champions, good luck to them, but that means nothing to us.”
Derry’s Kenny Shiels, “We were the dominant team early on. However, the conditions were more suitable to the way they play. You could see they had more experience in how to close out a game, how to make fouls in the right areas... you could see their experience shine through. It’s a bit of deja vu from 2 years ago when we played Finn Harps, and got beat 2-1. Everybody will be thinking we’re a soft touch, and you can’t blame them for thinking that. We got 4 bookings, and their man-of-the-match committed 19 fouls. I’m disappointed we didn’t bring something back because I felt for the first hour you could say we deserved that.”
Sligo Rovers 0 Limerick 1
On Saturday at a packed Showgrounds, with over 3,00 people in attendance, Limerick grabbed all three points in an entertaining game.
Limerick fielded 6 debutants in rookie boss Tommy Barrett’s first game in charge, and it was one of those who scored the winning goal in a 1-0 win. Defender Darren Dennehy headed in captain Shane Duggan’s cross, after some excellent play from former Cobh Ramblers midfielder Cian Coleman.
For Sligo, they only managed to name six substitutes, and they started the game with five new signings. Gerard Lyttle’s men created a few chances through McCabe and Pincelli, but overall were disappointing, and Limerick deserved to take all three points.
Limerick’s Tommy Barrett was a happy man after the game, “Yeah I’m absolutely delighted with the win. It was a great performance by the lads. It’s important to get a good start. I always thought we’d get a result up here, and I’m delighted with it. We went a bit more direct tonight as Mark O’Sullivan was causing them lots of problems. As you say they had a couple of chances but I felt we had the better chances overall and worked their goalkeeper more.”
Barrett continued, “It was a great header by Darren and I thought it was a good defensive performance. It’s always great to keep a clean sheet as it builds confidence. The lads believed they could win tonight, and near the end I didn’t think they were ever going to lose.”
Picture Credits: Anto Byrne (St Pats FC), Bohemians FC, Dundalk FC, Waterford FC and Sligo Rovers DSC
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