- Dónal Ryan
- Mon, Mar 14 2022
Aidan Keena scored all three goals for the home side as Sligo Rovers’ unbeaten run stretched to five with a 3-1 win over Finn Harps in the Showgrounds on Monday night.
It was far from straightforward though, as the Bit O’Red were made work hard for their victory by Harps, who still sit ninth on two points.
The visitors started the brighter of the two teams, with Ryan Connolly and Eric McWoods causing trouble in the Rovers’ defence in the opening stages.
But it was Liam Buckley’s side who were the more clinical throughout and took the lead on 12 minutes. Adam McDonnell made his way up the left wing and played across to Will Fitzgerald. His flick found Keena, and he crashed a fine finish into the bottom corner from outside the box to open the scoring.
McWoods was making his first start for Finn Harps, and a lot of their good play worked through him in the first half.
His best chance came five minutes before the break as he caught everyone in the Rovers box out with a clever chip that looked like it might sneak in under Richard Brush’s crossbar, but just dipped on to the roof of the net.
Two minutes later, and Rovers had extended their lead. Former Finn Harps man Karl O’Sullivan’s cross found Keena in the box, but his touch just got away from him. It came the way of Jordan Hamilton, who did well to hold the ball up and play it back out to O’Sullivan.
He managed to find Keena again, who made no mistake second time around, taking a clever touch to make space for himself and firing low into the bottom corner to put Rovers 2-0 up at half-time.
McWoods was surprisingly withdrawn at half-time and was replaced by Mark Timlin as Harps looked to put Rovers under pressure at the start of the second half.
However, it was Sligo who kept scoring. Keena completed his sensational hat-trick on 47 minutes, latching on to a long ball over the top and finishing well into the bottom corner to send the Showgrounds into raptures.
Harps manager Ollie Horgan rolled the dice mid-way through the second half, bringing on Yoyo Mahdy and Bastien Héry, in an effort to ignite the Ballybofey men’s creative spark. Mahdy’s first involvement was to take a free kick in the 62nd minute, but Brush was equal to his effort.
Although Rovers saw the game out well, Harps got their deserved consolation goal four minutes from time. A corner was cleared away by the Rovers defence, and it fell to substitute Luke Rudden, who rifled a powerful first-time strike into the bottom left corner.
The grandstand finish that played out in Ballybofey last season when Harps scored two goals to snatch a draw wasn’t to be this time around. This impressive victory moves Rovers up to second place in the table, a point behind leaders St. Patrick’s Athletic with a game in hand.
Sligo Rovers: Richard Brush; Shane Blaney, Colm Horgan, Robbie McCourt, Nando Pijnaker; William Fitzgerald (Mark Byrne 73), Adam McDonnell (c), Niall Morahan, Karl O'Sullivan (Patrick Kirk 77); Jordan Hamilton (Seamas Keogh 87), Aidan Keena (Max Mata 73).
Subs not used: Conor Walsh, Lewis Banks, Garry Buckley, David Cawley, Cillian Heaney.
Booked: None.
Finn Harps: Mark McGinley; Ethan Boyle, Jose Carrillo (Yoyo Mahdy 62), David Webster; Ryan Connolly (Bastien Hery 62), Barry McNamee (Luke Rudden 77), Elie N'Zeyi Kibonge, Ryan Rainey (Erol Erdal Alkan 62), Conor Tourish; Eric McWoods (Mark Timlin 46), Filip Mihaljevic.
Subs not used: Gavin Mulreany, Damien Duffy, Nathan Logue, Jesse Devers.
Booked: Jose Carrillo (24) ,Elie N'Zeyi Kibonge (59) Ollie Horgan (71).
Referee: Ben Connolly
