- Mark McGoldrick
- Sun, Sep 21 2014
A cloudless evening at the Showgrounds saw Sligo Rovers suffer a 0 -2 defeat to Drogheda United in the Bit o’Red’a latest Airtricity League fixture with Declan O’ Brien and Stephen Maher getting on the score sheet for the visitors.
Drogheda looked the stronger team from the outset. After just nine minutes Gavin Holohan threatened Gary Rogers goal with a well struck header. Luckily for the home crowd Rogers was aware of the danger, quickly scooping it up out of play.
Mick Daly and Peter McGlynn also tested the Sligo Keeper in the opening thirty minutes with McGlynn trying his luck from long range while Daly rifled off two shots inside the box after a scramble in front of goal.
Rovers didn’t get a decent chance until the 35 minute mark as David North made a superb run down the right sending a low shot towards Michael Schlingermann who dived on the ball and kept the game scoreless.
United’s counter attack after North’s chance led to the first goal of the game.
After Schlingermann cleared; the ball fell to McGlynn who combined with Holohan to work the ball up to O’Brien. His shot beat Rogers and gave the visitors the lead.
Rovers tried to respond with their own counter attack but their efforts came to nothing as North’s cross into the box found no one and the ball went out of play.
The home fans were treated to a heart stopping moment with five minutes to go in the half as a failure to clear in the Rovers defence led to another scramble in the Sligo box. The ball eventually found itself at the feet of Alan McNally whose shot took a deflection and curled to the right and wide.
Drogheda again looked the stronger side after the break with their first real chance of the half coming on 54 minutes when Gavin Brennan tried his luck with a header that just clipped the crossbar.
Barely five minutes later the visitors extended their lead. Stephen Maher cut through the centre of the Rovers defence and slotted the ball in the bottom left hand corner of Rogers goal after the ball took a deflection off the Sligo man.
The home side kept looking for holes in the Drogheda defence with Raffaele Cretaro and Paul O’Conor finding space in the box but were still unable to put the ball past Schlingernann.
So Rovers suffer their first defeat under Gavin Dykes and now face Cork City away at Turner’s Cross on the 26th while Drogheda go forward with three points into their game against Bray at home also on the 26th.
Sligo Rovers: Gary Rogers; Gary Boylan, Gavin Peers, Evan McMillan, Iarfhlaith Davoren (Paul O’Conor, 64); Raffaele Cretaro, Sean Conneely, David Cawley, Danny Ledwith; Danny North (Ruairi Keating, 90), Eamon Zayed (Gary Armstrong, 64) .
Subs not used: Richard Brush; Ross Taheny; Liam Flately, Ryan McManus.
Booked: Raffaele Cretaro (86).
Drogheda United: Michael Schlingermann; Mick Daly, Alan McNally, Ciaran McGuigan, Shane Grimes; Gavin Brennan, Gavin Holohan, Stephen Maher (Carl Walshe, 80), Peter McGlynn (Adam Wixted, 67), Daire Doyle; Declan O’ Brien.
Subs not used: Dylan Connolly; Ciaran O’Connor, Paul Andrews, Roy Kireans, Gareth Brady,.
Booked: Mick Daly (31)
Referee: Robert Rogers
Attendance: 1,247
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Michael Schlingermann (Drogheda United)
