Shamrock Rovers 1-1 Galway United - Champions miss chance to gain ground on league leaders
As against Drogheda United two weeks ago, it was a case of valuable points dropped for Shamrock Rovers, as the gap to Derry City and Shelbourne in first and second is 10 points.
Another home draw, another chance to make serious ground on the leaders squandered.
The first 20 minutes of this one were as dull as the skies overhead, but the remainder of the first-half between Shamrock Rovers and Galway United had its moments, while from the midway point in the second-half the game sprung into life.
At this point, the smart money would have been on the hosts making the breakthrough.
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Manager Stephen Bradley turned to the extensive and talented attacking options on his bench in a bid to force a goal and his back-ups looked capable of doing just that.
Where else in the league can you bring on the likes of Neil Farrugia, Aaron McEneff, Danny Mandroiu and Aaron Greene, and still have Sean Kavanagh, Richie Towell and Markus Poom - players with plenty of high-level English club and, in Poom’s case, international experience when chasing a goal?
With Graham Burke, Jack Byrne, Dylan Watts and Darragh Burns among the starters, that’s serious fire-power and attacking creativity.
Yet they were snuffed out and frustrated by this most John Caulfield of sides.
Rovers were kept at bay in a first-half that struggled to catch fire, albeit one in which both sides struck the woodwork.
Galway’s Jimmy Keohane was first to go within inches of the lead goal when Ed McCarthy’s long throw was headed clear to the edge of the area.
His left-foot shot clipped the inside of the post, bounced across the face of goal and away to safety.
It was Byrne’s turn five minutes before half-time when he turned on a Watts pass and sent his effort curling onto the top of the bar and over from 25 yards.
When the Rovers reinforcements arrived early in the second-half with fresh ideas, the chances started to come with a regularity that suggested a goal wouldn’t be far away.
It wasn’t. But at the wrong end from a Rovers point of view.
Some Hoops players appeared to stop as Jeannot Esua won the ball in midfield on 74 minutes and pushed it onto Killian Brouder.
He chipped it forward to Stephen Walsh, whose excellent first-touch wrong-footed Roberto Lopes and opened up the angle for a pass to Hickey on his right.
It was weighted perfectly for a first-time effort, which went fast, low, across goal and in off the foot of the left-hand post.
In the 10 minutes prior to that, all indications were that the hosts were finding their range.
Farrugia’s back-post header beat goalkeeper Brendan Clarke but was hacked off the line by Garry Buckley.
Byrne fired over from 25 yards moments later, and then Farrugia produced a wonderful turn from a Gary O’Neill pass before bringing the best out of Clarke.
Leon Pohls stood firm at the other end to deny McCarthy after he jinked outside the challenge of Dan Cleary.
Then came Hickey’s goal, to the delight of the away support and the dismay of the home fans in a crowd of just over 3,000.
Rovers pushed for an equaliser and Byrne’s deliveries were key. One corner was met by the head of Farrugia and directed across goal and wide.
Two minutes from time Rovers drew level when Byrne’s free-kick found the head of recent arrival Mandroiu, whose header had enough power to beat Clarke.
The hosts pushed for the win and it almost came in injury-time when another Byrne corner was headed on by Farrugia.
Aaron Greene at the back post seemed convinced it was going in, as he raised both hands in the air, but the ball fizzed just wide.
As against Drogheda United two weeks ago, it was a case of valuable points dropped, as the gap to Derry City and Shelbourne in first and second is 10 points.
With a game in hand over Shels and two over Derry, those four extra points would cast a completely different complexion on any late rally to secure a fifth title win.
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