League of Ireland Premier Division: Drogheda United 0 Shamrock Rovers 0<\/p>\n
On his first Premier Division outing in three months, World Cup hero Pico Lopes<\/a> saw red in injury-time as Shamrock Rovers<\/a> were held by Drogheda United<\/a> at Sullivan & Lambe Park. <\/p>\n Just 72 hours after their Champions League aspirations were ended for another year, Rovers were not at their best but Drogheda will care little about that as they claimed a crucial point in their battle at the bottom. <\/p>\n Lopes has known nothing but adulation in the last two months as his Cape Verde achievements have captured the imagination of all regardless of club affiliation. But when referee Aaron O\u2019Dowd brandished a straight red after his high challenge on Shane Farrell, the home supporters made their feelings clear.<\/p>\n There was a time in the not so distant past that Rovers went five Premier Division games without a victory against Drogheda, the Louth men laying credible claim to the title of the Hoops\u2019 bogey team. <\/p>\n Nowadays, de ite Drogheda\u2019s upward curve in recent seasons, it is an altogether different story. Stephen Bradley\u2019s team arrived unbeaten against their hosts in over three years, a run stretching 13 matches in league and cup. <\/p>\n With Rovers knocked out of the Champions League just three days earlier, Bradley made six changes to his line-up \u2013 teenagers Michael Noonan and Naj Razi started, while Luke O\u2019Regan was handed a first Rovers start. Will Fitzgerald, newly arrived from Sligo Rovers after a long courtship, debuted.<\/p>\n The winger\u2019s first taste of life at his new club was against Drogheda, just as his last action for Sligo had been six days earlier. Familiar opposition, but his new environs could hardly differ more.<\/p>\n Rovers are seven points clear at the top of the table, while Sligo sit bottom having lost their manager and captain in quick succession in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n The versatile Fitzgerald began his Rovers career at left wing-back but his bow was one of the few notable events in a first half that passed by largely without incident.<\/p>\n O\u2019Regan\u2019s cross to the near post was inviting but Edwin Agbaje beat Aaron Greene to it and when Luke Dennison failed to clear his lines, former Drogheda loanee John O\u2019Sullivan couldn\u2019t capitalise.<\/p>\n He came closer than anyone to a goal before half-time. Matt Healy\u2019s ball over the top fell kindly for Greene, who squared to O\u2019Sullivan but his effort came off the foot of the post.<\/p>\n With the champions searching for a greater cutting edge in attack, another new recruit, Jonathan Afolabi, entered the game for the second half, replacing Greene.<\/p>\n On his return to the League of Ireland after two forgettable years in Belgium and the Netherlands, he was anonymous in his 45 minutes on the field.<\/p>\n The second half was much improved fare but did not produce a goal. There weren\u2019t all that many chances that warranted one. Lopes went closest, glancing a header across goal only to see it drop outside of the upright. <\/p>\n Fitzgerald, having switched to the right after Adam Brennan\u2019s introduction, was a danger from that flank and twice had sights on goal. Only one troubled Dennison was that was tame. <\/p>\n Thomas Oluwa\u2019s jinky close-control took him past a number of Rovers defenders as Drogheda issued a rare threat. Rare, that is, until Brandon Kavanagh\u2019s 90th-minute strike hit straight at the goalkeeper. Keegan Ancelin then let McGinty off the hook in injury time. His effort was straight at the Rovers goalkeeper. <\/p>\n Doherty can be pleased his side extended their unbeaten streak to four matches now. As frustrated as he will be with Lopes\u2019 dismissal, Bradley will rue a chance missed to extend their lead at the top of the table. <\/p>\n Drogheda United: Dennison; Agbaje, Bolger, Keeley, Kane; Brennan (Kavanagh, 79), Bates (Godden, 59), Farrell; Bucknor (Davis, 79) Oluwa; Doyle (Ancelin, 63). <\/p>\n Shamrock Rovers: McGinty; Sobowale Lopes, Stevens (Grace, 82); O\u2019Regan (Brennan, 68), Healy, O\u2019Sullivan (Byrne, 68), Fitzgerald; Razi, Greene (Afolabi, 46); Noonan (Mahon, 82). <\/p>\n Referee: Aaron O\u2019Dowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"League of Ireland Premier Division: Drogheda United 0 Shamrock Rovers 0 On his first Premier Division outing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[103980,61,60,2539,51962,11113,112],"class_list":["post-578442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-drogheda-united","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-pico-lopes","tag-shamrock-rovers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578442","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=578442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}