Tolka Park thriller that ended too soon

TO BEGIN with a minor crib, referee Paddy Dempsey curiously brought proceedings at Tolka Park yesterday to a premature end - albeit by half a minute. No one would have complained had he added an extra half an hour, save perhaps the players and maybe the managers. This was one of those games you didn't want to end.

Each side had bouts of supremacy, Shamrock Rovers more so. Even then the superior force was never safe in a fluctuating contest - chances were just as liable to crop up at either end.

This performance will have rightly strengthened the Rovers manager's belief that his team are making progress". A blight on their day was a severe knee injury to Leonard Curtis which needed several stitches and, according to Byrne, "could be much worse than that".

There was much to admire in Rovers' football but perhaps more so in their attitude. Byrne has questioned this in the past when conceding some bloodless coups in a stop-start campaign but he couldn't have yesterday.

Derry are a test for any team's attitude. Largely played off the park in the opening half-hour or so, they rolled up their sleeves, turning things around as much through physical combativeness as what Felix Healy claimed was an initial error in playing too much football in their own half.

As for Rovers, there is oodles of skill in this team. When they get it right, they adhere to the club's rich footballing tradition. A mobile front two of Tony Cousins and Stephen Grant were always showing for the ball, supplying a target for the pin-point accuracy of Marc Kenny's passing.

A supreme exponent of the dead ball art, Kenny could be some player if he acquires more stamina and fitness, though this was one of his more complete 90 minutes. "It's up to him," said Byrne.

Kenny can be a bit of a luxury, though John Toal's presence makes it more affordable. It's no coincidence that Toal's gradual return to full fitness and form after his latest injuries has met with the recent improvement by Rovers.

Toal apart, what Rovers chronically lacked and what Byrne has given them through the signings of Lee Williams and Neil Candlish is a bit of pace, trickery and penetration from the flanks.

It was hard to quibble with Byrne's assessment that Williams was the man of the match. Twinkle-toeing down the right and capable of coming inside on his left foot, he peppered the Derry area with quality crosses. Yet even without long-time defensive lynchpin Paul Curran, Derry defended superbly.

This was due in no short measure to the frighteningly composed performance of Darren Kelly, recently turned 17, in Curran's place. Significantly, Kelly had been dragged out of position when Rovers's policy of playing balls into the corners yielded a richly deserved 22nd minute opener.

Williams had played the ball long for the ever-willing Grant and then arrived for the ensuing layoff to whip in a first-time cross which saw Cousins rise between Gavin Dykes and Richie Purdy to power a header past Tony O'Dowd.

Kenny had by then had his premature celebrations interrupted after inadvertently bending an indirect free into the bottom corner, subsequently testing O'Dowd with another dipping free.

One of several strong runs on the right by Tom Mohan, resulting in Robbie Horgan's fine save to deny Sean Hargan, woke berry. But the disruption caused by the 32nd minute injury to Curtis, following a heavy 50-50 sliding challenge with Peter Hutton, stemmed Rovers's momentum.

Rovers looked to be gasping for the interval well before Derry equalised in the 40th minute; Hutton playing in the excellent Gary Beckett - and as Gino Brazil lost ground with an impression of Tony Adams ("howzat linesman?"), the City striker swept an angled half-volley into the top far corner.

Largely through the Hutton-Paul Hegarty midfield axis, Derry threatened to take the game by the scruff of the neck. Hutton just failed to meet Sean Hargan's centre; Hegarty shot just wide and Tommy Duane went down inside the area under Lee Williams's challenge after James Keddy's deft back-heel, before Beckett's lay-off, Purdy's shot and Horgan's parry saw Tracey deny the incoming Hutton from the rebound.

When Derry regained the initiative shortly after O'Dowd's post-interval reflex save to keep out a Williams header, you half-expected Rovers to cave in. Hutton flashed a header from Mohan's cross just past the near post, the latter then testing Mohan.

But Rovers are made of sterner stuff than a month or so ago. Kenny helped to relieve the City siege with three pin-point counter-attacking passes, a crossfield 40-yarder landing on Williams's shoelaces.

Back came Rovers again, Kenny beating O'Down with a half-volley from the centre circle which was fractionally over. Derry were penned in, the livewire Williams clipping the far post after skinning Duane, then crossing for Gant's header to again bring the best out of O'Dowd.

On came the hamstrung Liam Coyle (not that you'd notice) and back came Derry. Toal tracked back to clear from the incoming Hutton as Mark McCormack's risky back-pass slid under Horgan, before Mohan left the Rovers's full-back for dead in smacking a shot on the run against Horgan's near post a minute from time.

Somehow it stayed at 1-1, the pity being that it had to end.