Roe Rovers Res traveled to Draperstown last week and collected another valuable 3 points and a clean sheet which was quite pleasing, it’s only their second this season. With a few players missing through injuries and work commitments Rovers opted to change formation to accommodate this.
This could have back fired on them as players were asked to play in different roles than they normally would but as proved to be the case it probably won them the game. With a very strong breeze blowing it was never going to be a classic encounter, both teams tried to play football but with passes being over hit and the ball moving a lot in the air it was scrappy at times. Rovers did most of the pressing in the first half as they had the breeze behind them and took full advantage of it.
Around the 20min mark, McGonigle made the most of a long pund up field as the bounce beat the defender he raced clear despite being pulled back to calmly dink over the keeper into the bottom corner. Rovers got a boost from this and had their best period of the game for the next 20mins. It wasn’t long before they added to their lead, McGonigle fed Dixon who turned his marker beautifully before hitting a fine shot that the keeper could only parry, guess who reacted quickest, there was only one winner with Dan the man in the box. Maude tapped home to maintain his fantastic goal scoring run of 10 in 10 games
With Rovers well on top the third came a few minutes later. After a lovely flick from McNickle to McGonigle who in turn squared to the back post allowing young “Chuckles” to tap home. 3-0 up after half an hour Rovers were in dreamland, it was at this point Draperstown changed their formation to combat Rovers system but the damage was done. The game became messy from now until the end of the half although Draperstown had a couple of chances and really should have scored.
Twice O’Kane had to make brilliant last ditch tackles to maintain the 3 goal cushion and when the Draperstown forward got the better of the Rovers defence and Ferris in nets he could only hit the shot over the bar after rounding the keeper. After the break, now playing into the breeze Rovers braced themselves for alot of Draperstown pressure but it never really materialised as the game became very scrappy. An injury to Maude at the end of the first half meant a change to Rovers with Kerr going up top.
With Draperstown doing most of the pressing, Rovers were content to hit on the break, Kerr had a couple of good chances but wasted them, McNickle also should have hit the net but was denied by their keeper. Ferris didn’t have much to do in the Rovers goal as the back three of Thompson, Haslet and O’Kane were very solid backed up by the hard working Deehan in midfield. Every Rovers player did their bit on Saturday especially in the second half when playing into the strong breeze. After their second half fell apart last week they were determined to see out the whole 90 minutes this time round and did so indeed.
With some very good performances especially from Dixon and O’Kane and playing a different system this was a very pleasing result for Rovers.
Match Report courtesy of Roe Rovers FC
