Soccer

Sligo Rovers hand out second straight defeat to champions Dundalk

Round-up: Dean Clarke earns St Pats a point in Cork; Bohs take points at Finn Park; Derry City make it three on the spin

Sligo’s Romeo Parkes celebrates scoring his side’s first goal during the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division match against Dundalk at the Showgrounds. Photograph: Ciarán Culligan/Inpho

Fri Apr 12 2019 - 22:39

Sligo Rovers 2 Dundalk 1

Sligo Rovers handed Dundalk their second defeat on the spin as they bounced back from recent indifferent form of their own to beat the champions at the Showgrounds.

Sligo took the lead with just 27 seconds played. Ronan Coughlan combined with full back Lewis Banks on the left. Banks’s cross was perfect for Romeo Parkes as he coolly slotted past Gary Rogers.

Sligo’s busy start was brought to a sudden halt when Kyle McFadden handled the ball inside the area. Pat Hoban clipping the subsequent penalty down the middle.

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Rovers calmed a brief Dundalk purple patch and took the lead again before the break. Parkes flicked David Cawley’s corner towards the back post where Dante Leverock was on hand to head past Rogers for his second goal of the year.

A disjointed Dundalk struggled to find a way past a solid Rovers in a second half bereft of much goalmouth action.

Daryl Fordyce was denied by a superb save from Rogers, when the Meath native pushed the Rovers attacker’s looping header over the Dundalk crossbar midway through the second period. John Mountney’s first-time volley was simple for Mitchell Beeney to hold on to as the champions pressed late on.

SLIGO ROVERS: Mitchell Beeney; Johnny Dunleavy, Dante Leverock, John Mahon, Lewis Banks; Kyle Callan-McFadden; David Cawley, Jack Keaney (Niall Morahan, 89 mins); Daryl Fordyce; Ronan Coughlan; Romeo Parkes (Kris Twardek, 73 mins). DUNDALK: Gary Rogers; Seán Gannon, Brian Gartland (John Mountney, h/t), Daniel Cleary, Dane Massey; Daniel Kelly (George Kelly, 62 mins), Seán Murray (Joe McKee, 68 mins), Seán Hoare, Jamie McGrath, Michael Duffy; Patrick Hoban. Referee: Rob Rogers.

Cork City 1 St Patrick’s Athletic 1

Substitute Dean Clarke earned 10-man St Patrick’s Athletic a draw at Turner’s Cross with a last-minute equaliser.

Graham Cummins’s first-half penalty looked to have been the only goal as the clock moved towards 90 minutes, but St Patrick’s snatched a draw as Clarke seized upon defensive uncertainty to poke the ball home.

After losses to Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers this is a blow to City, especially as they played better football than of late and deserved their lead through a Cummins penalty, awarded for an off-the-ball incident, with David Webster sent off.

Before that, Dan Casey had hit the post and in first-half injury time Garry Comerford had an effort touched on to the post by goalkeeper Brendan Clarke.

In the second half, City made good use of the ball against the 10 men, with teenage substitute Darragh Crowley impressive, but they couldn’t find the second goal, Cummins going closest with a header.

However, with St Patrick’s unable to create much, it looked like City had done enough. That was until the very end, when the home defence failed to clear and Dean Clarke nipped in to earn his team a point.

CORK CITY: McNulty; McCarthy, Bennett, Casey, K O'Connor (Griffin, 81 mins); McCormack, Comerford; Buckley (Gillam, 90 mins), Morrisey; Murphy (Crowley, 26 mins), Cummins. ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Clarke; Webster, Toner, Desmond; Madden, McCabe, Lennon (Doona, 84 mins), Clifford, Bermingham (Kelly, h/t); Markey (D Clarke, 73 mins); Shaw. Referee: S Grant (Wexford).

Finn Harps 0 Bohemians 1

Bohemians notched up their first league win at Finn Park since 2008 as they overcame basement club Finn Harps to stay second in the table.

Daniel Grant’s first-half strike proved to be the match-winner for Keith Long’s side as winless Harps suffered their ninth defeat in 11 outings.

Bohemians went close through headed efforts from Daniel Grant and James Finnerty early on, before Harps conjured up their first opening on 14 minutes when Nathan Boyle showed some deft touches before unleashing a shot that was stopped by James Talbot.

Bohemians deservedly took the lead on 37 minutes as Ward skipped down the left flank and whipped in a cross.

Dinny Corcoran failed to make the telling connection, but Grant pounced to find the net. And the Gypsies almost doubled their tally two minutes later as Corcoran hit the post and, following up, Ward was denied by the increasingly busy Gallagher.

Chances were few and far between in a tight second half as Bohs held on for victory.

FINN HARPS: Gallagher; O'Reilly (Place, 67 mins), Cowan, Todd; Kavanagh, Coyle, Borg, Doherty (McNamee, 45 mins), Russell; Boyle, McAleer. BOHEMIANS: Talbot; Pender, Finnerty, Barry, Leahy; Grant (Reghba, 78 mins), Levingston, Buckley, Devaney; Corcoran (Swan, 90 mins), Ward (Mandroiu, 70 mins). Referee: D McGraith (Mayo).

UCD 0 Derry City 2

First goals of the season from Greg Sloggett and Daren Cole made it three wins of the spin for Derry City to move them up to third in the table and fittingly mark manager Declan Devine’s 100th game in charge.

Derry deserved their 23rd-minute lead. UCD goalkeeper Conor Kearns initially made a brilliant one-handed save from ex-Student Sloggett’s header following a Barry McNamee corner.

There was no reprieve from McNamee’s second delivery as Sloggett stooped to head to the net from just a couple of yards out for his first goal since joining the club in the close season.

UCD had a penalty claim waved away as Derry were close to doubling their lead on 41 minutes from a swift counterattack. Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe set up his inrushing captain McNamee. College skipper Gary O’Neill did well to get back to deflect the shot out for a corner.

Though UCD upped their tempo and intensity from the restart they struggled to hurt Derry in the final third. Derry then all but killed the game from a McNamee corner on 71 minutes as Cole turned well in the area onto the loose ball to drill a finish into the corner of the net.

UCD: Kearns; Tobin, Collins, Scales, Dignam; O'Neill; Farrugia, O'Farrell (Doyle, 77 mins), Molloy, McClelland (Coffey, 77 mins); Mahdy (McDonald, 87 mins). DERRY CITY: Cherrie; Cole, Toal, Gilchrist, Coll; Sloggett, McNamee; Stokes (Bruna, 72 mins), Harkin (Tweed, 90+1 mins), Ogedi-Uzokwe; Parkhouse (McClean, 86 mins). Referee: Graham Kelly (Cork).

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