Derry City go top of the table as Shamrock Rovers’ horror start continues in Tallaght

Shamrock Rovers 1 Derry City 2

Derry City go top of the Premier Division. Goals by Ben Doherty and Jamie McGonigle saw the Candystripes leap over Bohemians, who lost 1-0 to Shelbourne at Tolka Park, but stunningly Rovers have just two points from their opening three games.

There are many, many miles to travel but Ruaidhrí Higgins just put one over Stephen Bradley in the battle of the thirtysomething managers.

A restricted full house of 7,626 and those paying €7 for the stream witnessed the League of Ireland alpha dogs going at each other and everyone got their money’s worth. When the fourth stand is opened in July, bringing the Tallaght capacity to 10,500, domestic football in Dublin will finally have a place to match the product.

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[ Premier Division table ]

Rovers will easily move on. Following a stuttering start to their four-in-a-row title chasing campaign, drawing twice on the road and swallowing three red cards in the process, they were supreme in patches.

But Derry were clinical when it mattered. Granted, Doherty’s goal on 18 minutes was wildly against the run of play.

Graham Burke took up the torch, spraying balls into Rovers’ teenage striker Johnny Kenny as Neil Farrugia’s deceptive running down the right also caused havoc.

Traps were laid all over the carpet-like surface, with solo runs or over-ambitious passing punished by tight systems invented in the minds of Higgins and Bradley.

Sadou Diallo being picked off by Gary O’Neill for the Rovers equaliser is a prime example. The Guinean born midfielder took one touch too many on 26 minutes and was suddenly boxed in by four Rovers players.

Unfussed, Diallo’s seemingly positive pass towards McGonigle was intercepted by O’Neill, moonlighting at centre back due to Roberto Lopes, Daniel Cleary and Lee Grace being suspended. The threat remained hidden to the naked eye, although Diallo and Patrick McEleney sensed the danger, both attempting to scythe down O’Neill, only for clever advantage by referee Neil Doyle to allow Estonian international Markus Poom pick out Kenny.

The 19-year-old, on loan from Celtic, let the ball run across his body before slashing his finish into the roof of Brian Maher’s net.

That erased Doherty’s neat opener, essentially caused by Trevor Clarke failing to snuff out Will Patching’s long ball off a Rovers corner.

At 1-1, the crowd were primed for a classic but when the green smoke caused by fireworks cleared, Rovers had a vice-grip on the game. Really, Clarke and Burke should have taken chances to put the champions ahead before the turn.

Talk of Rovers being equipped to compete on the domestic and European front proved empty rhetoric in 2022. It remains up for debate in 2023. O’Neill patched them together in the absence of five regular defenders but the prodigious Justin Ferizaj has yet to reappear this season while Rory Gaffney and Liam Burt, the new signing from Bohemians, were warming the bench for far too long.

Derry, operating without Michael Duffy, figured them out.

Any assumptions made at half-time were binned within nine minutes of the restart as Ryan Graydon’s pace was utilised by Patching’s light touch before a cut back saw McGonigle put the visitors in front.

Gaffney stripped off his tracksuit as ‘teenage kicks’ bellowed from the away end but Bradley kept faith in Kenny’s relentless industry for another 20 minutes.

Remarkably, Rovers continued to struggle as Diallo and Ollie O’Neill, on loan from Fulham, stormed the midfield exchanges. Patrick McEleney’s effort from 35 yards even drew a save from Alan Mannus.

The belated introductions of Gaffney and Burt proved too little, too late as Rovers fans wake up Saturday morning to a club in relegation trouble. That’s right, after three matches, only UCD are below the champions while Derry go top on seven points.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; Gannon, O’Neill, Clarke; Watts (Burt, 80), Kavanagh (Hoare, 80), Poom, Farrugia; Burke (Power, 74), Byrne; Kenny (Gaffney, 74).

DERRY CITY: Maher; Coll, Connolly, S McEleney, Doherty; O’Neill (Kavanagh, 81), Patching, Graydon, Diallo (McEneff, 76); P McEleney, McGonigle (Boyce, 81).

Referee: Neil Doyle.