By Jamie Moore
Shamrock Rovers 0-0 Cork City
Shamrock Rovers remain unbeaten in the league but couldn’t keep up their 100% record after this draw with fellow title chasers Cork City at Tallaght Stadium on Friday night.
The Hoops had the better of the chances but missed the cutting edge of striker Danny North who missed the game with a knee injury.
His replacement was Mikey Drennan and he had the best chances of the game, the best of them came on the stroke of half-time but his header from Marty Waters’ cross crashed off the crossbar and away.
Cork’s best chance of the match came to former hoop Karl Sheppard in the 19th minute after a mistake by Dave Webster. He latched onto Ross Gaynor’s pass but his shot from a tight angle flew across the face of goal.
Rovers had some other half chances but both Pat Cregg and Gary McCabe efforts were off target.
The second-half was more of the same on a poor pitch with Rovers shading it on chances without every really being in control.
Drennan’s header from Simon Madden’s cross went wide while Sheppard could have profited from a mix up between Rovers’ goalkeeper Craig Hyland and David O’Connor, but his deflected effort went over.
The battle of the internationals couldn’t bring us any goals, Keith Fahey, Stephen McPhail, Liam Miller and Colin Healy will hope to perform better in their next games.
Rovers play Sligo Rovers away on Tuesday night before the big Dublin derby against Bohemians next Friday night in Tallaght which we will be covering live on 98FM.
Hear from Pat Fenlon on 98FM's Now That's What I Call Sport from 9am.
Shamrock Rovers team - Craig Hyland, Simon Madden, David Webster, Conor Kenna, David O’Connor; Patrick Cregg, Keith Fahey (Stephen McPhail 72); Gavin Brennan; Gary McCabe, Marty Waters (Sean O’Connor 72); Mikey Drennan (Gareth McCaffrey 84).
Cork City team - Mark McNulty, John Dunleavy, Alan Bennett, Darren Dennehy, Ross Gaynor; Colin Healy, Liam Miller; Kieran Djiali (Mark O’Sullivan 65), Garry Buckley (Gavan Holohan 75), Billy Dennehy (Danny Morrissey 80), Karl Sheppard.
Ref - Neil Doyle
