Saint Patrick’s Athletic 0
Shamrock Rovers 1
“THAT’S WHY WE’RE champions” came the chant from the handful of travelling Shamrock Rovers at Richmond Park, and that’s why they’ll be champions again.
Once again Rovers stole a win at Pat’s deep into the closing moments, this time from Nahum Melvin-Lambert’s own goal in the second minute of stoppage time. It’s a result that sends them nine points clear of their second-placed opponents. What’s more, Rovers have a game in hand and Pat’s are running out of games to catch up.
The decisive moment was a nightmare for Pat’s substitute Melvin-Lambert, as he sent Dylan Watts’ late free-kick beyond his own goalkeeper.
Pat’s started with vigour, though didn’t create a good chance of note, with Jamie Lennon firing a shot from the edge of the penalty area wide of Alan Mannus’ right-hand post.
Sam Bone started out of position at right-back and Rovers were determined to test him, frequently flighting cross-field passes to left wing-back Barry Cotter. Pat’s offside line generally held, though twice it was breached.
First Danny Mandroiu timed his run and saw a pull-back across the goal clumsily diverted behind for a corner by Paddy Barrett, and later Mandroiu volleyed over when he reacted fastest to Cotter’s cross from the endline.
Cotter was Rovers’ main attacking outlet down the left wing but he was also dealing with Pat’s best option behind him: the electric Darragh Burns.
Burns’ pace and direct running caused Rovers problems, and when he skated into the box and fell beneath a challenge from Roberto Lopes a howling Richmond Park turned their ire on the unmoved referee, Robert Hennessy.
Rovers finished the first half in the ascendancy, pinning Pat’s back without truly testing Vitezslav Jaros.
Pat’s almost profited from replicating Rovers’ tactic in the opening minutes of the second half when Bone hoisted a cross-field pass to Chris Forrester, who peeled off the back of Sean Gannon and planted a firm header just wide. A minute later Forrester’s connection let him down, miscuing Burns’ pull-back in front of goal.
Forrester made way shortly after through injury, replaced by Billy King.
Rovers hogged most of the ball but created little while Pat’s looked ever-threatening on the counter-attack. Burns’ clever lay-off sent Billy King sprinting down the right flank, and when his cross was half-cleared to Sam Bone, who saw a piledriver parried away by Mannus.
Rovers swapped Gaffney and Cotter for Aaron Greene and Neil Farrugia, and, typically, the latter’s first involvement was to watch Burns breeze by. This time the cross was stood up to the back post, and there were unheeded shouts for handball against Richie Towell from Matty Smith’s header.
The game then almost instantly swung Rovers way: Aaron Greene was sent scarpering clear on goal, but saw a glorious one-on-one thwarted by Jaros.
In a sign he was perhaps content with a point, Stephen Bradley withdrew Danny Mandroiu – the last-hasp hero when these sides met here earlier on the season – for Chris McCann.
Instead Rovers were invigorated, with Watts pushing further forward and causing havoc. He forced Jaros into a terrific double save as the clock ticked toward the 90-minute mark, and ultimately, it was his free-kick that forced a goal that had ramifications beyond just the winning of this match.
Saint Patrick’s Athletic: Vitezslav Jaros; Sam Bone, James Abankwah (Shane Griffin, 62′), Paddy Barrett, Ian Bermingham (captain); Darragh Burns, Jamie Lennon (Ben McCormack, 83′), Alfie Lewis, Matty Smith; Chris Forrester (Billy King, 57′), Ronan Coughlan (Nahum Melvin-Lambert, 83′)
Shamrock Rovers: Alan Mannus; Sean Gannon, Roberto Lopes, Lee Grace; Ronan Finn (captain); Gary O’Neill, Dylan Watts; Barry Cotter (Neil Farrugia, 75;); Daniel Mandroiu (Chris McCann, 79′), Richie Towell; Rory Gaffney (Aaron Greene, 65′)
Referee: Rob Hennessy
Disgrace by uefa to have the final in Baku in the 1st place. No doubt they got a fair few Euro’s for that call.
@kev egan:
Why is UEFA a disgrace? Because Arsenal fans say it is?
@Just Some Guy: he said why above?!
@Colm O’Donnell: for having the final in Baku?
@Just Some Guy: for having anything at all in that country: just as many reasons to boycott it as there were to boycott the Eurovision in Israel, yet they keep getting awarded sports events. I wonder why.
@Just Some Guy: For allowing it to take place in a country where a player cannot actually play as it would be unsafe. Daft question
@Alonso:
So UEFA should move the final somewhere else just to suit one player? Arsenal, Chelsea and other teams who took part knew well the final was in Baku.
@Just Some Guy: Are you actually serious? If it’s unsafe for mhikitaryn then clearly by him travelling he would be putting the LIVES of everyone on the team bus in danger not to mention the unrest it would cause the locals and the subsequent potential danger for travelling fans..I might also make the point that uefa only offered Chelsea and arsenal 20% ticket allocation to a near 70000 seater stadium..are you going to defend this aswell..or perhaps the fact that there is NO direct flight to Baku and the people that can travel are paying thousands to support their team..uefa are rotten to the core absolutely stinks of backhanders and there is no defending them
@kev egan: all the finals cant be in England
@tubbsyf: where did I say that they had to be!! Somewhere easily accessible for fans that doesn’t have safety risks for players from certain countries would be minimum ask tho…..
@tubbsyf: Azerbaijan is not in Europe.
@Michael: nobody has to pay thousands to go abroad to see a team play football. It’s a choice. Personally I’d spend the money on something else. The low allocation (20%) probably reflects the low turnout of traveling fans expected. And the whole “supporting their team” thing is all a bit lame. Unless you’re Stan Kroenke you can’t call it your team and even then he is just the majority shareholder of Arsenal holdings.
It’s a joke that Arsenal were forced into this decision. Why are UEFA hosting a final in a place where the safety of players can’t be guaranteed? Wasn’t Aleksandr Ceferin supposed to be cleaning up UEFA after Platini? It’s actually gotten worse. Mkhitaryan has scored against Chelsea this season and in a previous Europa League Final. What would happen If it the boot was on the other foot and it was Chelsea and, say, Eden Hazard? They’d probably up the ante by boycotting the final – which they could more afford to do as they’ve already qualified for next season’s Champions League.
@GOOПΞɌΛDΛM: more of a joke how it’s being referred to as “major” European final in the article. Baku is right place for it
@GOOПΞɌΛDΛM: but they have guaranteed his safety, what more do you expect them to do?
@Vocal Outrage: They absolutely have not..
@Michael: I would suggest you re-read the article, they have said they will guarantee their safety. My question, which I believe valid in this context, what else do they need to do beyond actually saying they will guarantee? Is that not the very definition of a guarantee?
@Vocal Outrage: I would suggest that YOU re-read the article the UK ambassador in Azerbaijan literally said “if you want to play the issue then that’s a different story.” Haha does that actually sound reassuring or anything near a guarantee to you?! Wise up kid
Here’s a mad idea – why don’t we hold European Finals in Europe instead of in oil-rich Central Asian countries with no football?
@Brendan Moriarty: technically, part of Azerbaijan is part of Europe. Azerbaijan, along with Georgia, Russia, France, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy and Turkey are transcontinental countries. If we are to exclude countries because part, or all, of their territories lie outside of Europe, then Spain (part), France (part), Portugal (part), Greece (part), Italy (part), Cyprus (all), Israel (all), Turkey (most), Georgia (part), Azerbaijan (part), Russia (part) and Kazakhstan (part) would all be disqualified.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: what part of spain is not in Europe?
@Ken MacEoin: The exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla sit on the African mainland. The islands of the Canaries are geographically in Africa, too, although, obviously, not the African mainland.
@Ken MacEoin: Ceuta, Melilla and the Canaries
@Ken MacEoin: as for Portugal, Madeira (birthplace of Ronaldo) is in Africa and parts of the Azores are in North America.
@Ken MacEoin: Cueta
Looked up flights to genuinely see if it’s possible to go and cheapest was 1400 absolute joke !! Also only allocating 6000 tickets aswell for security reasons they should have it in Wembley where they are more than able to handle that!! Politics ruining football again no doubt there was a brown bag for Baku a place I never heard of before
@Gavin Lynam:
Wembley? Just because two London teams qualified for the final? Give over.
@Just Some Guy: Yes in Wembley! and it could happen if both teams had the ballls to boycott the game and stick it to UEFA
@Gavin Lynam: nobody cares about the Europa League. My advice is to watch it in a pub and spend your money wisely on beer and nuts. You should have enough left over to buy an overpriced Arsenal replica jersey which you can wear and pretend you’re one of the players and run around the garden like a little boy in a Batman suit.
Imagine Messi or Ronaldo weren’t able to play in a final because UEFA couldn’t guarantee their safety.
Think this is a bit OTT from the Arsenal / Miki camp.
@John Lewis Hamilton: Have a read of this and see if you feel the same way.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/bmwdnu/why_mkhitaryan_will_most_likely_not_go_to_the/
If a Armenian team had of reached the final(very unlikely i know) where would it have been played???
I personally think Liverpool will win their 6th European Cup
When are Ueafa going to see common sense and wait till after the semi finals before they announce venues for the final. In my opinion both European finals should be in Wembley. If it was a final between a Spanish team and German team play it in Paris or a final between an English team and Italian team play it in Germany. Makes more sense
Hes not very good anyways
For Christ’s sake! Why do the journal post the actual tweet and then repeat the whole tweet in the body of the article? Does the article have to have a minimum amount of words?
Delighted it there. Should move liverpool and spurs their to. Then disconnect their broadcasting stations so we dont have to list to english broadcasters. UP THE GAA
Probably a silly question but can english teams still qualify for Europa after brexit?
@Paddy O Rourke: Not a silly question. Brexit is to do with the European Union, not UEFA. Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Turkish, Israeli, Cypriot, Ukrainian teams, etc all currently play in UEFA, despite not being part of the EU. So, yes, they can continue to qualify for any European tournament that they currently qualify for.