Bohs are not Dutch Gold - as Derry Drink from the Cup of Victory - Series 16 Review
First time I've written a piece reviewing games - and it is something that will appear in a blog I'm compiling to complement my work on the Foot.ie one - so any feedback would be great...
Bohs are not Dutch Gold - as Derry Drink from the Cup of Victory - A Review of Series 16
Well, Friday night saw a slimmed down League Programme - a grand total of 6 games kicked off Series 16 - only 3 games in the Premier and 3 games in the First Division.
The most action packed game of the night - not all of it of a positive nature - came at the Home of Irish Football, Dalymount Park - where free-falling Bohemians (whose descent down the table was stopped briefly by a 3-1 win down at the RSC the previous Friday night) in 7th, took on 3rd place Derry.
A largely forgettable first half - punctuated by several attempts by Gareth Farrelly to do an Arie Haan impression by shooting whenever he got within 35 yards of David Forde's goal. His shooting, like his managerial expertise this season, was way off the mark.
However - one thing was true to form tonight - the visiting team took the lead. On 21 minutes - Mark Farren was infringed upon on the edge of the Bohemians area, leading to a free-kick for The Candystripes. Kevin Deery took it before the referee, Alan Kelly of Cork, had whistled for it to proceed, leading to a weak shot by Barry Molloy who was under pressure from 3 Bohs defenders. But somehow it found it's way past Stephen O'Brien and into the bottom corner of the net to give Derry a 1-0 lead. By all accounts it was shocking defending from the home side.
The Derry lead was to last some 20 minutes. A Farrelly free wasn't hit all that convincingly, but thanks to Vinny Arkins' pressure on David Forde, the ball found it's way inside the Derry keeper's near post and into the back of the visitors goal - "a lucky equaliser" some were heard to say.
The second half started much like the first - not much happened. However, 8 minutes in - controversy awoke and began it's exercise routine. As Derry waited to take a corner - the referee, Alan Kelly from somewhere down in the bottom right hand corner of the map, had spotted an incident in the box, ran over, cautioned the Bohemians defender Barry Ferguson for an off the ball incident, and awarded a penalty - much to the chagrin of the home team.
Once the protests had died down (those out on the pitch, not the ones eminating weekly from the Jodi calling on Mr Farrelly to "for Christ's Sake Resign") - Mark Farren stepped up to successfully convert the spot kick and give Derry a 2-1 lead.
After this Bohemians player/manager Gareth Farrelly picked up a yellow card for his protests, and worse still his midfield partner, Thomas Heary was dismissed for Foul & Abusive Language soon after.
The game finished as it had started - with the Arie Haan impressions of shooting on sight - however Bohs are not the Dutch side of the mid-1970s - so most of those didn't even trouble the keeper.
Final Score: Bohemians 1 - 2 Derry City
Just up the M1 in Drogheda, and an interesting match at United Park saw new Drogs signing Eamon Zayed, formerly or Bray Wanderers and Aalesund, making his debut for his new club against visiting St Patrick's Athletic. And he started it with a bang.
4 minutes in - and a Jason Gavin header courtesy of a Paul Keegan freekick gave the home side the perfect start. It got even better on the quarter-hour mark as the new boy marked a new chapter in his career - turning home a Shane Robinson cross to double United's advantage.
However they couldn't add to this dominance and had to settle for a 2-0 half time lead.
Pats gave a much better account of themselves in the second 45 - Alan Reilly's penalty on the hour giving the Inchicore club a glimmer of hope.
Sadly this was not to materialise as Dan Connor in the Drogheda goal pulled off several excellent saves.
The only other event of note in the second half was an injury to Match Referee Damien Hancock, who had to come off injured (a suspected hamstring pull according to RTÉ Radio's reporter) - he was replaced by Fourth Official Neil Doyle.
This win put Drogheda back on top of the Premier Division and should give them a boost as they go into their UEFA Cup tie against HJK Helsinki at the Finnair Stadium in Helsinki next Thursday.
Final Score: Drogheda United 2 - 1 St Patrick's Athletic
The only other Premier Division match played on Friday night took place at The Showgrounds, and initiated an experiment by the Sligo Rovers board to see the effect on crowds by playing their home league games on Fridays, as opposed to their regular Saturday night arrangements.
The 1,100 or so who were in the Showgrounds saw a pretty decent 2-0 win for the newly-promoted home side against the visitors Dublin City - and the home side appear to be comfortably holding their own in the Premier.
Although Freeman hit the frame of the goal for Dublin City after 21 minutes, it was Sligo who lead at half time. Almost straight away after City had hit the woodwork, a neat move by Matthew Judge and Adam Hughes led to Bosnian midfielder Fahrudin Kudozovic scoring via the aid of a post.
Sligo then doubled their lead on 36 minutes through a Garry Curran shot.
Despite a couple of chances from the visitors from the capital, Sligo ran out comfortable winners in the end.
On the negative side - Rovers lost Paul McTiernan, June's Player of the Month, to an ankle injury on 11 minutes. The extent of the injury is not yet known, but a stretcher was required to carry him off the pitch.
Final Score: Sligo Rovers 2 - 0 Dublin City
Briefly in the First Division, Dundalk comfortably beat Monaghan 3-1 at Century Homes Park in the North East Derby - Sean Finn, Philip Hughes and Chris Doran netting for Dundalk - Barry Burke replying for Monaghan from the penalty spot.
Galway United and Kildare County shared the points with a 1-1 draw at Terryland Park. Barry Moran converting a penalty for Galway after just 3 minutes, Nigel Keady scoring an own goal on the half-hour to give Kildare a point.
And finally in the top of the First Division clash at Hogan Park, Limerick FC defeated Shamrock Rovers for the second time this week 1-0 (the other victory coming in the Quarter Final of the League Cup). The all important game winning goal coming courtesy of Paul Rose.
Final Scores:
Monaghan United 3 - 1 Dundalk
Galway United 1 - 1 Kildare County
Limerick FC 1 - 0 Shamrock Rovers
Saturday night sees Longford Town vs. Cork City in the Premier Division, and Kilkenny City vs. Athlone Town plus Cobh Ramblers vs. Finn Harps in the First Division.
Sunday's action goes a small bit continental - Shelbourne play the Danish side OB Odense in the Intertoto Cup - kick off in that one is at 3pm at Tolka Park.
Finally Bray Wanderers take on UCD in the Premier on Sunday afternoon as well - kick-off at the Carlisle Grounds is 3:15pm.
