Shamrock Rovers -v- Sligo Rovers

• John Robert Dunne
• Sat, Jul 18 2009


Shamrock Rovers will look to consolidate second place in the table when they take on Sligo Rovers at Tolka Park on Saturday night. The match has been moved from Tallaght on safety concerns by order of Rovers’ Landlords, South Dublin county council, as preparations continue for the visit of Real Madrid on Monday.

The Hoops go into to this important encounter in superb, unbeaten in their last nine league match and winning their last four. They will be looking to keep the pressure on Bohemians and will be hoping that their great rivals become distracted with their European adventures, indeed a win here will see the gap reduced to just 2 points. Rovers will have to plan without the suspended Sean O’Connor who was sent off last week against Bray following a loose comment made to a lines man in injury time.

Rovers boss Michael O’Neill remains cautiously optimistic ahead of the game. “Obviously we want to keep our good run going, but we are also aware that Sligo will be very keen to get something from this game, so it won’t be easy. Despite the distraction of the hype that surrounds next Monday’s friendly against Real Madrid all we’re concentrating on is this crucial game against Sligo. Ollie Cahill, Stephen Bradley and Darragh Maguire are all back in contention so we are in pretty good shape.”

He continued to reflect on last weeks win away to Bray Wanderers. “It was good to get a win there as Bray had been a bit of a bogey side for us this season. Once again, Twiggy (Gary Twigg) and Dessie (Baker) scored – but overall we were happy with the performance. The incident with the wall collapsing was quite worrying at the time, but thankfully no one was seriously injured and we got the three points when the game restarted after a long delay.”

Sligo boss Paul Cook must plan without two more of his back four as Steve Feeney picked up a groin injury in last Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Cork and Danny Ventre was sent off in the same game while Gavin Peers and Stephen Parkhouse are still out. Sligo will be looking to restart their season after the disappointment of losing narrowly 3-2 on aggregate in Europe. They started the season in the same vain as last year, when they finished fourth but a run of poor results has seen them drop to second from bottom.

Following the euphoria of the move to Tallaght it will be strange for Rovers to return to Tolka Park, their home for many of there wilderness years. Rovers must forget about the glamour tie against Real Madrid and focus on a match of much more importance. Despite the distractions their excellent recent form should see them win comfortably.

Extratime.ie prediction: 2-0 to Shamrock Rovers