Shamrock Rovers 3
Bohemians 1
SHAMROCK ROVERS’ NEW breed came to the fore tonight in Tallaght Stadium as some of their youngsters put on a real show to beat bitter rivals Bohemians 3-1.
In an action-packed opening 20 minutes Rovers missed a penalty when Brandon Miele saw his spot-kick saved.
Bohemians then found themselves a man down when Keith Buckley was red carded – his tackle on Gavin Brennan left referee Paul McLaughlin with little choice.
But just three minutes later though, Kurtis Byrne had the Gypsies in front.
Running on to a long ball, the striker took full advantage of the static Hoops defence, guiding his shot over Craig Hyland and in at the far post.
It was hectic stuff, but, amid all the chaos, 17-year-old Aaron Dobbs kept his composure just after the half hour mark to carve out Rovers’ equaliser.
A sweeping break ended with the youngster fizzing the ball across the box to Dean Clarke who made no mistake.
Dominating the game now, Stephen Bradley’s men had the lead four minutes later through Gary Shaw when he got ahead of Derek Prendergast to steer in Clarke’s downward header.
The hectic nature of the tie continued right up until half time, with Roberto Lopes smashing the ball off the underside of the crossbar from three-yards out, but in the second period the play was less dramatic, at least for the first 25 minutes.
After that the home fans went wild when another youngster, Sean Boyd, scored a brilliant goal after a slick one-two with Shaw.
Boyd was booked for taunting the visiting fans during his celebration, and the game almost spilled over minutes later when Gavin Brennan and Kurtis Byrne clashed in front of the Bohs fans but some level of calm was quickly restored.
Just before the third goal Keith Long lost Ismahil Akinade, and without a target man they struggled to threaten again before the end on a night that belonged to Rovers’ new breed.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Hyland, Cornwall, Madden, Heaney, G Brennan, Cregg, K Brennan, D Clarke (T Clarke, 74), Dobbs (Boyd, 65), Miele, Shaw (McPhail, 81).
SUBS: Murphy, Webster, Boyd, T Clarke, Doona, Purdy, McPhail.
BOHEMIANS: Delaney, Pender, Prendergast (Morris, 77), Lopes, D Byrne, Buckley, K Byrne, Kelly (Mohammed, 69), Mulcahy, Hayes, Akinade (Quigley, 67).
SUBS: Quigley, Mohammed, Kavanagh, Morris, Caffrey, Wearen, Supple.
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
Entertaining fame good advertising for loi
Some encouraging performances from the kids. Also nice to see the team allowed to express themselves with the shackles off. They can even entertain when they play attacking football.
So, so sweet! What a start to the weekend beating that obnoxious shower
That’s rich coming from a Rovers fan
“…lost Ismahil Akinade”? How? Did he wander off the pitch into the night or something?
Concussed lad.
That’s what I was thinking! ?
ThAt lil tramp Boyd should have been sent off trying to antagonise bohs fans with celebration
Brilliant atmosphere in bohs end. 10 minutes of non stop free from desire at the start of the second half the highlight!
The Bohs have got no money….
Who cares stadium that holds around five thousand half empty for the biggest game in Irish football says it all about league of Ireland football the excuse about it was on television is not relevant
Stadium holds 6,000 .
I think you’ll find that the fai cup final is by far the biggest game in the domestic calendar. Also Cork vs Dundalk in Turners cross has been a much bigger game than this in recent years.