Twigg on the double for classy Rovers

ON A night in which Shamrock Rovers paid tribute to their late supporter Philip Greene, they eventually produced a performance the old RTÉ commentator would have been gushing about.

After Craig Sives opened the scoring with a set-piece header, returning striker Gary Twigg finished off two passing moves of the highest quality.

Many, of course, would have predicted that given the differences in resources — and points — between Rovers and Drogheda. But it took a while for that to be the case last night.

Despite an initial onslaught, a worrying anxiety afflicted Rovers’ play once they realised Drogheda weren’t going to roll over. It started with a few errors and continued with a general lack of cohesion. Essentially, they stopped doing all the things that make them a much better side than the Louth team.

Perhaps sensing this, Mark O’Brien almost caught their defence out with a surging run. Drogheda ended the half as arguably the better team, having forced a series of corners.

It was from a similar set piece that Rovers eventually opened the scoring, though. Just a minute after half time, a perfect Conor McCormack free-kick found Sives’ head to open the scoring.

From there, normal service was resumed — in every sense.

Two divine passes — one from O’Neill, the second from Gary McCabe — fell to Twigg, who scored on his first start since getting injured against Bray a month ago.

And, within minutes of that, Billy Dennehy played a through-ball of equal quality. Onrushing keeper Steven Trimble was caught out, allowing Twigg an even easier finish.

The result predictably leaves Drogheda rooted to the bottom of the table with just two points from 14 games. That is an average of 0.14 points a match.

Drogheda actually performed a lot better last night than their points haul would suggest. They were just unlucky to face a Rovers side with many more gears.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; McCormack, Stevens, Sives, Murray; Turner (Rice 60), Finn, Dennehy, McCabe; Twigg (Kilduff 70), O’Neill (Sheppard 65).DROGHEDA UNITED: Trimble; O’Brien, Hand, Gannon, Ekanem; Quigley, McCrosson, O’Brien, McNamara (Murray 65, Gaul 70); Freeman (Campbell 80), Corcoran.

Referee: P Sutton (Clare).