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\nAdam Brennan shoots towards goal<\/p>\n
Sligo Rovers sank to the bottom of the Premier Division table for the first time since February as Shamrock Rovers came from behind to beat ten-man Bit O’Red 2-1 at the Showgrounds.<\/p>\n
Sligo skipper Will Fitzgerald had them ahead at the break, but four half-time substitutions on the Hoops’ behalf changed this game as Jack Byrne and a somewhat fortunate Graham Burke winner, via a Sam Sargeant clanger, gifted the Dubliners their second win on the banks of the Garavogue this season.<\/p>\n
Sligo had midfielder Daire Patton sent off six minutes into the second half and to make matters worse, they were leap-frogged by Waterford into tenth spot courtesy of their inferior goal difference.<\/p>\n
With just one win in their last five, that a defeat of the champions in Tallaght back in May, Sligo made two adjustments in personnel from their draw with Shelbourne last week.<\/p>\n
Archie Meekison, recently recovered from knee surgery, took his place in a starting eleven for the first time since mid-May. While Cian Kavanagh, their only senior out-and-out striker following the return of Mai Traore to parent club Notts County, made his first start in three.<\/p>\n
Recent acquisition, 16-year-old striker Jamie O’Donnell was named on the bench.<\/p>\n
Departing for Malta for their Champions League clash with Floriana on Monday morning, Stephen Bradley made two switches from the Dubliners’ comfortable victory over Galway last week. Defender Adam Matthews and midfielder Dylan Watts coming in as they aimed to push further ahead in their bid for a sixth title in seven seasons.<\/p>\n
\nAdam Brennan shoots towards goal<\/p>\n
Their goalkeeper and former Sligo net minder Ed McGinty had to bat away a Sean McHale header from a Ryan O’Kane corner on six minutes following a brief period of chaos in front of the Republic of Ireland underage international.<\/p>\n
While Adam Brennan, a star feature of the win over Galway, went close for the away side shortly before Sligo went in front.<\/p>\n
Meekison’s endeavour on the right wing won possession back for Sligo as the Hoops again failed to impress defensively.<\/p>\n
His cross was allowed to bounce by Fitzgerald who had time and space to meet the ball on the half volley before blasting past a sprawled McGinty and into the corner of the net for the Limerick man’s fifth goal of the year.<\/p>\n
One of three full Irish internationals in the Shamrock Rovers match day squad, Enda Stevens tested Sargeant with a drive from 18 yards without success. While Brennan skied his next chance when John McGovern laid Jake Mulraney’s cross into the path of the starlet.<\/p>\n
McGovern should have restored parity on the half-time whistle but the Newry man allowed Brennan’s cross creep through his legs with the goal at his mercy.<\/p>\n
Frustrated by what they saw, the Hoops made no less than four substitutions at the break and the move paid dividends straight away.<\/p>\n
![\"3](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024a2a7-614.jpg\"\/)
\nWill Fitzgerald had put Sligo in front<\/p>\n
Sargeant had repelled substitute Burke’s initial effort but couldn’t keep out fellow change Byrne’s resulting shot.<\/p>\n
The evening took a further turn for the worse for John Russell’s men on 52 when Patton was red carded for a clumsy challenge on Watts after Patton was caught on the ball outside his own penalty area. Referee Paul McLaughlin decided the Sligo man was the last man.<\/p>\n
Matt Healy lashed a shot off the crossbar, Michael Noonan headed wide at the back post, while Sargeant’s superb reactions saw him fist away a Brennan header moments later as last year’s FAI Cup winners continued to knock on the door.<\/p>\n
Cruelly for Sligo, it didn’t take anything special from their opponents to find the combination for the winner which arrived with eight left.<\/p>\n
Instead, Burke’s innocuous looking shot from the left which looked comfortable for Sargeant, somehow spilled away from the grasp of the Londoner who allowed it slip between his hands and into his net.<\/p>\n
Sligo Rovers: Sam Sargeant; Jeannot Esua (Kyle McDonagh 88), Gareth McElroy, Sean McHale, Sean Stewart; Carl McHugh, Daire Patton; Will Fitzgerald, Archie Meekison (Seb Quirk 67), Ryan O’Kane; Cian Kavanagh (Jamie O’Donnell 78).<\/p>\n
Shamrock Rovers: Ed McGinty; Adam Matthews, Enda Stevens (Cory O’Sullivan HT), Lee Grace; Jake Mulraney, Adam Brennan; Connor Malley (Jack Byrne HT), Matt Healy; Dylan Watts (Maleace Asamoah 59); John McGovern (Michael Noonan HT), Aaron Greene (Graham Burke 45).<\/p>\n
Referee: Paul McLaughlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sligo Rovers sank to the bottom of the Premier Division table for the first time since February as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-531969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}