Rovers remain head of the class

On a night when the Head of State was present in Tallaght Stadium, there was plenty of talk after the game about the state of refereeing with two more red cards added to this season’s early catalogue of sending offs.  Whilst President Michael D. Higgins enjoyed attending his first Airtricity League of Ireland game of the season, Stephen Kenny’s Shamrock Rovers were claiming their first clean sheet of the league campaign along with another win.

The victory was helped in no small part by Shelbourne goalkeeper Dean Delany’s early sending off.  However, the Hoops themselves had to play with 10 men late in the game as Gary McCabe picked up two yellow cards.

Some of the 5,000 strong crowd were still finding their seats when Aaron Greene played a through ball in to Billy Dennehy who was taken down in the box on four minutes.  Referee Derek Tomney had no hesitation in sending the ‘keeper off.  It was Gary Twigg who took the penalty.  Extratime.ie spoke to Rovers manager Stephen Kenny after the game and asked is Twigg the designated penalty taker for Rovers this season?  

“Well Gary tells me he is,” a smiling Kenny said.  “You want your main striker to be able to take them and score.”  That is exactly what Twigg did as he scored past Shels substitute goalkeeper Paul Skinner. 

It was a new formation for Rovers in this game as Stephen Kenny deployed his team with a 4-2-3-1 system.  He was also forced to change his starting line-up for the first time this season due to player injury and suspension.  

“We went with that system as you need to be flexible,” said Kenny.  That flexibility was shown with Killian Brennan lining out at left back.  “Conor Powell was suspended and Kerrea Gilbert wasn’t available.  I thought Killian did a great job,” said Kenny of his replacement full back.  The system gave plenty of opportunity for Rovers to exploit the space against 10 man Shelbourne and the Hoops ran out 4-0 winners in the end.

Rovers remain top of the table with ten points after four games.  The fixture lists see Hoops will play Shelbourne, Bohemians and St. Patrick’s Athletic over the course of fourteen days.  After this win over Shels, Rovers welcome Bohemians to Tallaght next Friday.  

“It is another Dublin Derby,” said Kenny of next Friday’s game.  “We have Bohs but then we have Pats the following week.  They are all big games.”