Scintillating St Pat’s move top of the league
With each passing week, St Patrick’s Athletic look more and more the outstanding side in the League of Ireland.
Six wins in seven have propelled Saints to the top of the table, and while nearest rivals Bohemians are struggling to find goals of late, Stephen Kenny’s side are plucking them from everywhere.
Kian Leavy and Romal Palmer have emerged as the spearheads of the league’s sharpest attack, both relishing the space and runners around them in Kenny’s evolved system. They had ample room on Friday against a sorry Sligo Rovers, who couldn’t live with the movement and quality on show in Inchicore.
What may excite home fans most is their strength in depth. Aidan Keena, Max Mata and Jamie Lennon all contributed from the bench on Friday. Chris Forrester didn’t play a part at all. The fund of options within Shamrock Rovers’ squad is rightly mentioned as reason to bet on the champions retaining their title, but Pat’s are showing they may have the league’s next best talent pool.
As a double act, Leavy and Palmer tick many boxes. The former is constant – twisting and wriggling through gaps in midfield, his powerful left foot hovering menacingly over the ball as he shifts it. This season, Leavy is making the right decisions, understanding the pitch better and realising his own strengths.
He called it perfectly for the Pat’s equaliser, clipping a ball delicately onto Palmer’s head when the more obvious choice might have been a low fizz across the face of goal.
Palmer is less busy than Leavy, though he often attracts more attention. His goal was emphatic, but the assist for Saints’ third may have been sweeter. Drifting left and dragging three Sligo defenders into his orbit, Palmer slid an underlapping Anto Breslin into a now vacant penalty area. Breslin’s finish was brilliant, but the shape of the game had been sundered by the Englishman.
Pat’s travel to Dundalk on Monday for what will be a meeting of the league’s two in-form sides.
Galway United’s David Hurley. Photograph: Evan Treacy/Inpho
A tale of two transfer windows at Eamonn Deacy Park
A cloud of vulnerability hung over Derry City going into Friday night’s fixtures, with big players missing and concerns mounting around an ambitious but now seemingly misguided transfer window.
Galway United conducted a similar volume of business in the off-season, more out of necessity than desire given the exodus of a host of their most important players. Both sides have confounded expectations; where Derry’s great expectations are dwindling, Galway’s initial fears look unduly pessimistic.
Whatever about the injured McClean brothers, whose names are at the heart of questions posed around Derry’s transfer policy, the absence of Michael Duffy for the first time in 57 games was poorly timed for a side lacking confidence. Galway smelled blood, pummelling Derry in the first half and looking the more competitive side throughout.
There were reasons to admire each of the night’s three goals, but David Hurley’s opener stood out. Having blasted a 30-yard free kick straight into the wall, the Cork native opted for a volley in anger as the ball looped back towards him. On his weaker right foot, Hurley’s strike was pure and past Eddie Beach in an instant.
Post-match, he reduced the moment to “a bit of frustration more than anything”. “It’s probably just that I’ve connected with the free kick so badly … that I’ve swung the right foot at it,” Hurley explained.
The game was epitomised by a clash between Stephen Walsh and Rob Slevin late on. As a ball broke loose between the pair, Walsh showed no hesitation in thundering through his former teammate, leaving him in a heap and bursting forward untroubled in search of a winner.
Perhaps Slevin hadn’t fully recovered moments later, when he appealed hopefully for an offside instead of closing down the advancing Frantz Pierrot, who had time and space just inside the box to pick out the far corner and choreograph a celebratory dance in front of the travelling Derry fans.
Pierrot, perhaps the biggest name added to Galway’s roster this season, is yet to start a game. On Friday night’s evidence, he is benefiting from a patient approach and the absence of a harsh spotlight – some of Derry’s new men may look on with envy. Title ambitions voiced before a ball was kicked are beginning to look damaging.
This sort of victory, meanwhile, has been in the post for Galway. The Tribesmen have made a strong start to the season despite conceding a slew of late goals. Feigned injuries in the dying minutes at Eamonn Deacy Park ensured they wouldn’t suffer the same fate here.
They were aided by their largest and loudest attendance of the season, with children from amateur clubs around the county invited to attend the game for free.
Shelbourne gamble reaps goals but Dundalk edge stretched thriller
Dundalk’s Eoin Kenny and Gbemi Arubi celebrate after their win against Shelbourne. Photograph: Inpho/Dan Clohessy
An early blitz from Dundalk was the catalyst for an end-to-end second half at Tolka Park on Friday night, as Shelbourne found some attacking rhythm but left empty-handed.
Gbemi Arubi and Bobby Burns had made it 2-0 in a first half dominated by the Lilywhites. They pressed hard and outworked Shels, who fell into lethargic patterns of possession in comfortable, ineffective areas, rarely able to pierce their opponents’ defensive line.
Joey O’Brien responded with three changes at the break, switching to a back four in the hope of jolting his side into life. It worked, and goals from Zeno Ibsen Rossi and John Martin drew the game level.
Chances were coming at both ends. Arubi was magnetic leading the line for Dundalk, too fast and wiry for the adjusted Shels defence. With shape abandoned, flurries of chances and pinball possession mini-games took place inside the Shelbourne penalty area – a part of the pitch Dundalk were happy to flood at will.
Ibsen Rossi proved the decisive figure, turning the ball into his own net with four minutes to go after excellent wing play from substitute Eoin Kenny. It was an unfortunate winner, but a deserved one for Ciarán Kilduff’s side, who have now taken three points in three of their last four games.
Shamrock Rovers player Graham Burke scores a penalty against Waterford. Photograph: Inpho
Shelbourne, meanwhile, can take positives from the fluidity of their attack in the second half, but the loose nature of the game in its closing stages will concern O’Brien.
Elsewhere, Shamrock Rovers rescued a point through a late Graham Burke penalty in Waterford, and Bohemians relinquished top spot as they played out a 0-0 draw in Drogheda.