Galway United 1–2 Shamrock Rovers
Trevor Murray at Eamonn Deacy Park
It was an away win for Shamrock Rovers on the night as Gary Shaw sealed victory with his all-important double which sees the Hoops make it two wins from four in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.
The game had hardly settled into a rhythm before Shaw fired Stephen Bradley’s charges into the lead, latching onto a clever through-ball played in by Ronan Finn that split the home defence.
The last time these two sides met in the top flight, Ryan Connolly was on the scoresheet twice, netting for the Tribesmen in a 4-2 away defeat in Tallaght Stadium, but the former Galway star would see himself on the winning side on this occasion, having transferred during the winter break.
Shane Keegan’s troops never recovered from the set-back of going down to an early goal, despite Rovers failing to produce much of note for the remainder of the opening half outside of a Ronan free kick that was comfortably saved by Conor Winn from 35 yards.
In truth, aside from the opener, Galway were solid enough defensively, and David Cawley did well to produce a goal-saving tackle just inside the area to deny Darren Meenan in the 21st minute when the Rovers attacker had bested Winn from Tomer Chencinski’s long kick out.
The restart saw Galway acclimatize better to proceedings and looked to include Vinny Faherty as a target more and more. However, it was Marc Ludden who fashioned their first shot on target of the second 45, cutting in from the left flank before testing Chencinski.
Keegan’s troops were very much in the ascendancy at that stage, passing the ball around intelligently and they earned their reward when Ronan Murray popped up on the edge of the area to finish a counter-attacking move, despite his effort deflecting off a defender and in past the ‘keeper.
However, the good times wouldn’t last long for them as they were punished for some sloppy defending a few minutes later.
Winn punched clear a free kick as far as the edge of his own area, but his defenders couldn’t complete the clearance and Shaw pounced in the 64th minute to produce a shot from 18-yards that went through a group of bodies and into the back of the net.
The result sees Rovers extend their excellent form against Galway in league action – United have now failed to beat the Hoops in 11 years, their last win coming back in 2006.
Galway United: Conor Winn, Colm Horgan, Marc Ludden, Lee Grace, Alex Byrne (Jesse Devers 89), Gavan Holohan, David Cawley, Padraic Cunningham (Vinny Faherty 17), Gary Shanahan (Conor Melody 77), Ronan Murray, Stephen Folan.
Shamrock Rovers: Tomer Chencinski, David Webster, Roberto Lopes, Ryan Connolly, Ronan Finn, Brandon Miele, Darren Meenan (Paul Corry 69), Gary Shaw (Sean Boyd 75), Daniel Devine, Simon Madden, Trevor Clarke
Referee: Robert Hennessy
