League Report: Shamrock Rovers 2 - 0 Sligo Rovers

Sam McKeever reports from Tallaght Stadium

Shamrock Rovers made it five wins from six league games on Friday night as they overcame a struggling Sligo Rovers side 2-0 at Tallaght Stadium.

Dylan Watts scored his first goal for his new club in his third league appearance before Gary Shaw grabbed his second in two games late on.

The opening quarter of an hour had nothing really to shout about with the closest to a goal coming from an Aaron Green corner finding Dan Carr at the back post.

The Trinidadian striker could not get a good connection on the ball to trouble Mitchell Beeney in the Sligo goal, however.

Sligo had the first real clear-cut chance a few minutes later as good work down the right between Lee-J Lynch and Jack Kearney got Kearney in a good position for the pull- back.

He found David Cawley arriving in the box and his right-footed shot rattled the crossbar with Alan Mannus beaten in the Rovers goal.

Just past the half-hour, Watts forced Cawley into an error and drove at the Sligo back four and forced Beeney into a good save diving to his left to stop a rasping shot.

The start of the second half started brightly for Rovers. Ronan Finn played a lovely free kick from the right hand side to the front post.

Greene made a fantastic run as it just missed his head before going out for a goal kick.

Rhys McCabe played a very smart pass down the line for Mikey Drennan to chase. He bore down on goal with only Mannus to beat but his poor effort was easily saved.

Finn was then once again involved as the Rovers captain picked up the ball in acres of space and drove at the Sligo defence.

He hit a left footed effort which was deflected by John Mahon just past the post – it was the closest that either team got to open the scoring up until that point.

Rovers finally broke the deadlock on 66 minutes. A Finn cross was tipped away from goal by Beeney the loose ball was picked up by Coustrain.

He pulled it back to Carr, who mis-hit it, before it broke to Watts who toe poked it home to get his first goal for the club since joining from Leicester City.

Sligo were reduced to ten after a poor tackle by Seamus Sharkey on Aaron Bolger on the edge of the Sligo box gave referee Robert Rodgers no choice but to issue a second yellow.

From the resulting free kick, substitute Brandon Kavanagh forced Beeney down to his left to tip around the post.

As the rain started to come down on Tallaght Rovers sealed the win with four minutes to go, Ronan Finn’s effort from long range could only be pushed out by Mitchell Beeney into the path of Gary Shaw.

He tapped home from close range to seal the victory and claim a vital three points for Stephen Bradley’s men who are now just one point behind Waterford in the table.

Shamrock Rovers: Alan Mannus; Ally Gilchrist, Roberto Lopes, Lee Grace, Greg Bolger(Aaron Bolger 79); Dylan Watts, Ronan Finn, Dan Carr(Brandon Kavanagh 69), Joel Coustrain; Aaron Green(Gary Shaw 76), Sam Bone

Subs not used: Kevin Horgan (gk), Brandon Miele, David McAllister.

Booked: Greg Bolger (52)

Sligo Rovers: Mitchell Beeney; Regan Donelon, Seamus Sharkey, Rhys McCabe, Mikey Drennan(Patrick McClean 81); Lee Lynch, Chris Twardek(Liam Kerrigan 65), Caolan McAleer(Darren Collins 76), Jack Keaney; John Mahon, David Cawley

Subs not used: Ed McGinty, Kyle McFadden, Raffaele Cataro, Lewis Morrison

Booked: Seamus Sharkey (21) (Red card 81)

Referee: Robert Rodgers

Attendance: TBC

Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Dylan Watts (Shamrock Rovers)