Sligo Rovers 1 - 0 Dundalk

Sligo Rovers held their own in 2nd place in the Airtricity League with a 1-0 victory over Dundalk FC in the Showgrounds, courtesy of a 25 yard strike from 33 year old veteran Alan Kirby.

It was felt around the ground by both sets of supporters that Rovers were full value for their victory, although their lack of a top quality out-and-out striker is painfully obvious and certainly restricted their ability to close Dundalk out of the game last night. Dundalk will be disappointed their long unbeaten run in the league has come to an end, but with such a depleted squad they could not be accused of lacking effort and kept with last year's cup winners right until the end and were very unlucky not to snatch a draw when Michael Hector had a shot saved somehow by Brendan Clarke.

Paul Cook made two unforced changes to his starting XI for the game, with Brendan Clarke replacing cup final hero Ciarán Kelly in the nets and John Russell getting a well deserved break as he took to the bench to allow John Dillon take to the right wing. Dundalk were forced to omit Daniel Kearns through suspension and Greg Bolger through injury, and they were replaced with Shane Guthrie and Ross Gaynor entering the first team, with Michael Hector slipping to midfield from his usual centre back berth.

The game started fairly ambiguously, with neither side really seizing the initiative infront of goal. Although Rovers had the majority of the possession of this and every other period, no real clear cut chances arrived to Rovers until the 17th minute of the first half, although half chances did fall to Eoin Doyle and Joseph Ndo, but Doyle's chance was snuffed out by a clearing header from Colin Hawkins while Joseph Ndo's scorpion come bicycle effort just didn't manage to hit the target. 

Indeed on that 17th minute, some great inter play between Dillon and Doyle on the right wing played in Alan Kirby on the right hand side of the area but with the goal at his mercy, Kirby shot over in a move that really should have seen the Bit O'Red take the lead.

Doyle again was involved in the making for the other two chances which fell to the team from Church Hill. The first of these came when he unknowingly blocked down a miscued clearance from Peter Cherrie. The attempted long ball came off Doyles back and landed around Doyle. By the time Doyle had got the ball under control, Cherrie was all over him like a student over a stray drink in a nightclub. Doyle tried to square it back for Kirby, but his shot was over the bar. The Tallaght lad then nearly converted a header from Aaron Greene which just strayed wide of the post.

Dundalk had two chances in the opening period, the first fell to Keith Ward when he had a free kick in a threatening position 25 yards from goal on the 20th minute. His shot however was lobbed into the shorts of the Sligo Rovers wall. Without a doubt a very poor effort by Ward. While three minutes before the end of the half, the afore mentioned Ward picked out Mark Quigley on the left with a majestic ball. Quigley controlled it in the air with his foot, and took on Alan Keane down the left. After beating Keane just at the touchline, Quigley's cross was nearly perfect but was intercepted by Gavin Peers. 

It didn't take Rovers long to make an impression in the second half, and Eoin Doyle headed a gilt edged opportunity wide after 49 minutes. Dillon gave the ball to Keane on the right, and his cross fell to Doyle's head, but he could only direct it past the far post. Rovers indeed continued to pile on the pressure, and a Richie Ryan corner found Jason McGuinness, lurking typically at the far post. His header had Cherrie beaten but just bounced off the post and was then cleared by the Dundalk defence. 

The pressure payed on on the 53rd minute, when Kirby got the only goal of the game. After Davoren played the ball to Greene, Greene tried to find Russell in the box but Hawkins intercepted the pass and it fell to the path of Kirby, who was 25 yards from goal. And with the keeper out of position, Kirby simply stroked it home past everyone in the box who seemed to stand still and let ball continue on its path to the net.

Doyle had several more chances to finish of Dundalk in the remainder of the game. First he capitalised on a mistake by Guthrie in the 56th minute, but that shot low and hard was saved by Cherrie. Approximately 10 minutes after this, Russell forced Hawkins into giving up the ball on the right hand touchline. He raced down the right wing and crossed just ahead of Doyle, who failed to reach it even though he threw himself at it. Yet another Dundalk mistake gave Sligo their third clear cut chance at getting a second. Ward haplessly gave up the ball to Dillon in the middle of the park, and his pinpoint through ball tore apart an already stretched Dundalk defence and Doyle was left 1-on-1 with Cherrie. He took the ball from just inside the Dundalk half and brought to the keeper from the right but dragged his shot just wide of the post.

Dundalk were again limited to two chances in the second half. The first came when Johnny Breen was introduced in the 76th minute. The free kick from the same break in play was taken by Murphy from the left hand touchline. The ball floated in and was flicked on to the back post where an unmarked Breen was lurking, but he blasted over the bar.  The final goal opportunity of the game fell to Dundalk, when Mark Quigley won a free 25 yards out. He took it himself but it scuffed off the wall into the path of Michael Hector, he shot on the turn, the ball took a deflection of Peers and was headed to the bottom left hand corner of the net. Somehow, Rovers keeper Brendan Clarke kept it out, getting right down to push it around the post in what was truly a save that saved 2 points for Paul Cook's men.

Sligo Rovers: Brendan Clarke; Alan Keane, Gavin Peers, Jason McGuinness, Iarfhlaith Davoren; John Dillon, Joseph Ndo (John Russell 17), Richie Ryan, (Danny Ventre 69), Alan Kirby; Aaron Greene, Eoin Doyle (Raffaele Cretaro 82).
Subs not used: Ciaran Kelly, Derek Foran, Daryl Horgan, Mathew Blinkhorn.
Bookings: Davoren (32).

Dundalk: Peter Cherrie; Simon Madden, Shane Guthrie, Colin Hawkins, Nathan Murphy; Michael Hector, Dean Bennett, Keith Ward, Ross Gaynor; Mark Quigley, Mark Griffin (Johnny Breen 75).
Subs not used: Paul Murphy, Chris Kerr, Philip Duffy.
Bookings: None.

Referee: Padraig Sutton (Clare).

Attendance: 1,475
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Eoin Doyle.