Shamrock Rovers 2 (Sandford, Tambwe)

Drogheda United 1 (Hanratty)

FAI Airtricity Under 19 League

Saturday, 1^st September, 2012

At Tallaght Stadium

This game began in a flurry and ended in one too. Last season Drogheda pulled off a surprise win at Tallaght Stadium and on this occasion also began brightly but so too did the Hoops. The tone of the first half was set in the sixth minute when Rovers’ central midfielder Tzee Mustapha put Dean Ebbe through on goal and, with the ace marksman delivering a powerful shot, Drogs ’keeper Sean Dunne was forced into making a brilliant point blank save.

Rhys Gorman in action against Drogheda at Tallaght Stadium
 

Just on the half hour mark Mustapha again put Ebbe through but yet again Dunne came to the rescue of his side. What followed afterwards was a succession of corner kicks in favour of the Hoops won by Clayton Stafford, Tzee Mustapha, Mark Sandford and Jamiee Goonery respectively. This all happened at a stage in the game were Rovers were fully dominating but couldn’t get the ball into the back of the net. The pressure didn’t end there either. Right full Nathan Brown gave a super ball in to Mustapha which Drogs centre half Stephen Watters managed to head away. Sandford and Mustapha both had chances after that and then in the thirty-sixth minute Dunne made a terrific left-hand save to deny Sandford the opening goal.

Drogheda’s Manual Kaguako and James Hanratty combined to set something up but quick action by Mullaney saw the ball over the line for a throw in.

The second half was only on for a mere three minutes when the visitors took the lead. John Murray broke away from his marker on the left and delivered the ball in to the box where James Hanratty got onto it and beat Morris to make it 1-0 to Drogheda.

Rovers had a glorious opportunity to level the score after Daly fouled Sandford in the fifty-seventh minute but again Dunne was alert and finger-tipped Dylan Kearney’s free kick over the bar. Mustapha went close after that but his effort went narrowly wide.

The minutes were ticking down on the clock and many in the crowd felt that Rovers would rue their missed chances, especially those in the first half. The equaliser came though in the eighty-ninth minute when Kelvin Jackson cut in from the right and glided into the box, taking the ball along the end line he cut back in and poked the ball into the path of the waiting Sandford who connected with it perfectly to strike it over the line.

The Hoops grabbed a sensational winner just a minute later when substitute John Tambwe won the ball off an opposing defender and bore down on goal to strike a good ball over the line to make it 2-1. A huge cheer went up in the stadium as Dunne and his teammates could not believe that they had lost the lead in such a short time in dramatic fashion. It was hard stuff on ‘keeper Dunne, who was easily Man of the Match.

Shamrock Rovers: 1 Stephen Morris, 2 Nathan Brown, 3 Dylan Kearney, 4 Jamiee Goonerie, 5 Ryan Doolin (Gorman 56 mins), 6 James Mullaney (Tambwe 58 mins), 11 Glody Nsay, 8 Tzee Mustapha, 9 Dean Ebbe (Jackson h.t.), 10 Mark Sandford, 7 Clayton Stafford. Substitutes: 14 Rhys Gorman, 15 Kelvin Jackson, 16 John Tambwe, 17 Adam Walsh, 18 Joseph Lennon-Maher, 19 Ryan Dick, 25 Alex Condell

Drogheda United: 1 Sean Dunne, 2 Manual Kakaako, 3 Ciaran McMahon (Hevey 12 mins), 4 Glen Daly, 5 Stephen Watters, 6 Jamie Walsh, 7 Tadhg O’Brien, 8 John Murray Gelling 73 mins), 9 James Hanratty (Simpson 69 mins), 10 Lindo Majola, 11 Jonathan Coleman. Substitutes: 12 Ciaran O’Connor, 13 Andrew Callaly, 14 Stephen Hevey, 15 Lee Gelling, 16 Sean O’Connor, 17 Sam Simpson, 18 Robert Pearson

Referee: Adriano Reala

Assistants: Damien Hancock & Matthew Farrelly