- Christopher Davey
- Wed, May 07 2008
Sligo Rovers came into tonight’s League Cup game on the back of a seven game unbeaten run and looking to progress further in a competition that manager Paul Cook stated earlier on the season he'd love to win. In direct comparison, Galway United have suffered a rather bad start to the season, firmly rooted to the bottom of the table, only picking up two points along the way. Rovers beat Kildrum Tigers convincingly in the last round of the competition, and Galway dismissed Longford 2-0 a month ago in Terryland Park in order to have the privilege of playing Sligo Rovers tonight in the Showgrounds.
Rovers will feel very hard done by not to have won the game, which they dominated from the kick-off to the final whistle. They controlled possession but failed to break down the United defence and make their mark on the scoresheet where it mattered.
The match opened with very little chances, Fahudrin Kudozovic taking two frees from virtually the same position just outside the Galway box inside the first quarter of an hour. Both efforts however, went to the left of the Galway goal and never really had United keeper Rogers worried.
The best chance of the first half fell to Anto Murphy on the 18th minute. Kudozovic squared the ball across the Galway 6 yard line, Brian Cash failed to connect and it fell to Murphy on the right hand side of the United box. Murphy failed to keep his cool and blasted the ball over the Galway crossbar in a situation where he will be disappointed not to have scored.
The rest of the first half was mainly tit-for-tat, with Galway having their first chance of the night courtesy of Gary Deegan. He scuffed his shot however on the 38th minute. Rovers had one more chance late in the first half when Judge played a short corner to Kudozovic on the right hand side, Kudozovic delivered the ball into the box where it was met by Anto Murphy. Murphy however put his shot wide of the United net.
Murphy had another chance early in the second half, when he spotted Rogers off his line. Coleman played the ball to Murphy about 30 yards out however unluckily for Rovers his effort was off target. Murphy again was involved in two more chances for Rovers, one where he headed a Chris Butler free wide of Rogers' goal and another where he dictated the play in the middle of the park to set up Rafael Cretaro with a perfect through ball. Cretaro had a poor touch unluckily and Rogers collected the ball.
Galway's best chance of the 120 minutes fell to Stephen O'Flynn, who headed on target from a Derek O'Brien cross on the 75th minute. His attempt at scoring was tipped away by Richard Brush in the Bit O'Red goal.
Rovers had the opportunity to progress to the next round when Rafael Cretaro was taken down by United keeper Gary Rogers inside the United box after being played through by Kudozovic on the 85th minute. Up stepped the figure of Keith Foy, wanting to cap his first appearance of the season with a goal from the spot. Foy hit the penalty low to Rogers' left. Rogers' continued his good form of the game by reaching down and stopping the shot, keeping Galway Utd in the competition and putting the game on course for extra time.
There was only one main chance in the thirty minutes of extra time that followed. Fitzgerald took down Rafael Cretaro on the 96th minute and Keith Foy, dead ball specialist, was looking to make amends for his poor penalty earlier on. He stepped up, and curled the ball with pace towards the top left corner of the net beating Rogers along the way. The ball didn't beat the crossbar however and sent the woodwork shaking with the force of the shot. It just wasn't to be Keith Foy's night.
Then, came the words that all football fans dread and all neutrals love, Penalty shoot-out. Kudozovic scored for Rovers, Gary Deegan levelled for Galway, Judge reinstated Rovers' lead, and Mark McCulloch missed. Jamie McKenzie made it 3-1, John Fitzgerald pulled one back. Foy missed his second penalty of the night and former Rovers' player Derek O'Brien levelled the scores again.Both O'Grady for Rovers and Faherty for United scored to bring the shoot-out to sudden death. Mauro Almeida continued his goal scoring of late by beating Rogers only for James O'Shea to keep Galway in the competition by scoring his penalty. It was Danny Ventre who was to be the villain of the shoot-out when be blasted his penalty low and hard, but way off target. Ollie Fenn then duly delivered for Galway by putting them through to the next round of the competition.
Rovers will be bitterly disappointed not to have won having bossed the game and Galway will surely have to improve and create chances if they are to progress any further in the league cup.
Sligo Rovers: Richard Brush; Seamus Coleman, Mauro Almeida, Jamie McKenzie, Chris Butler; Brian Cash (Keith Foy 78), Danny Ventre, Raffaele Cretaro, Anto Murphy (Conor O'Grady 89); Romauld Boco (Matthew Judge 29), Fahrudin Kuduzovic.
Subs not used: Pat Jennings, Gary Curran.
Galway United: Gary Rogers; Reg Nootimeer, Wes Charles, John Fitzgerald, Marc McCulloch; Jay O'Shea, Gary Deegan, John Russell (Ollie Fenn 46), Derek O'Brien; Mark Leech (Vinny Faherty 72), Stephen O'Flynn (Derek Glynn 107).
Subs not used: Alvin Rouse, Paul Sinnott.
Referee: .
