League Preview: Shamrock Rovers -v- Cork City

SHAMROCK ROVERS

The Hoops loss last Friday night was their first in the league in Tallaght since May 2021.

The 2-1 defeat to Derry City was Rovers’ first loss in 30 home league games – the club’s best run since a streak of 31 league matches without a loss across 1963 to 1966. The run of 29 games undefeated for Stephen Bradley’s side had an impressive 24 victories and five draws.

Hoops Head coach Stephen Bradley spoke afterwards about the disappointment with the result but he was  satisfied with his team’s performance. “We’re not used to losing games,” said Bradley speaking to shamrockrovers.ie. “We don’t like losing games and we felt we didn’t deserve to lose, so the players were disappointed after the game."

Friday’s result leaves Rovers with two points in sitting in the relegation play-off position in the early season table but there is no panic in Tallaght as Rovers seek their first win of the season.

Rovers led 1-0 in their opening two league games going into the 89^th minute away in Sligo and Drogheda only to concede. The three red cards received in those matches and the subsequent defensive suspensions didn’t help the Hoops last Friday.

With Pico Lopes, Lee Grace and Dan Cleary all suspended, Bradley once again deployed Gary O’Neill in defence and this time around went with Sean Kavanagh and Sean Gannon either side of him.

“I thought both Seans did well considering they hadn’t trained and were only back, but you could see for the second goal, Sean Kavanagh just lacking that match sharpness and fitness caught him and he just couldn’t sort his feet in time.

“On another night we could have had the game overwith at half-time. We created a number of opportunities and their keeper made two brilliant saves as well to keep them in it. I thought some of our play in the first half was really high level, probably the best we’ve been at home in a long time, and on another night we’re a couple of goals to the good.

"Our goal is really good. We win it back with a good press, Gary [O’Neill] does really well with his play and then Markus Poom’s first time pass into Johnny Kenny’s path. Once you put Johnny in on goal you always fancy him, left or right foot. He’s a really good finisher and he showed that on Friday night.

“There’s not much to put right, other than the result, which we don’t like and don’t want but in terms of performance we just need to keep improving on what we’ve been doing the last two weeks.

“I said after Drogheda I felt it was getting there and I think we saw that on Friday night. I’ve no doubt everything will fall into place off the back of that. I said after the game to the players, and after watching it back in the morning, after our meeting that I really liked 90% of that performance on Friday.”

CORK CITY

Having lost their opening two games of the season – 4-0 at home to Bohs and 2-0 in Derry – the Leesiders got their first win of the year on Friday with a comprehensive win over UCD.

The 4-0 win for Colin Healy’s men over the Students in Turner’s Cross came thanks to goals from Matt Healy and Darragh Crowley in the first half and Ruairi Keating and Ethion Varian in the second period.

Healy lined out 24 times in last season’s First Division and was involved in a dozen goal involvements (with four goals and eight assists).

Stephen Bradley speaking about his opponents on Monday said: "I think what you’ll get with Colin’s teams is a team that’s really well organised and they know their jobs. If you watch their game against Derry, they had three or four really good opportunities to equalise and go ahead in the game.

“They’re off the back of a really good win against UCD so I’ve no doubt they’ll come up and have a right go. They’ll go to win the game, we’ve got to respect that and I’m sure we will, as we do every opponent.

"If you look at Cork as a team, they have real pace in their team so we’ve got to respect that as well."

It looks like City will be without both Cian Murphy and Tobi Oluwayemi (the goalkeeper missed Friday’s win over UCD due to injury).

Referee: Rob Harvey

MATCH STATS

Rovers ran out 3-0 winners when the sides last met. That was a behind-closed-doors game in Turner’s Cross in September 2020. Aaron Greene scored a brace while Neil Farrugia scored his first goal for the Hoops in that game.

When the sides met earlier in the season in Rovers’ first home game of the season, Rovers won 6-0 with Graham Burke scoring an incredible five goals in that game.

City have to go back to five years for the Leesiders’ last win over Rovers – that was a 1-0 victory in Turner’s Cross in March 2018. Since then they have played each other nine times in the league and Rovers have six wins. It is six years since City’s last victory in Tallaght – a 2-1 win for City on St. Patrick’s Day 2017.

PREDICTION

3-1 home win

Shamrock Rovers

Injured: Ronan Finn

Doubtful: None

Suspended: Pico Lopes

Cork City

Injured: Cian Murphy

Doubtful: Tobi Oluwayemi

Suspended: None

League Preview: Bohemians -v- Drogheda United https://t.co/Yp8xZ8psx8

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) March 5, 2023