Brave Sligo hold firm in Ukraine

SLIGO ROVERS secured a superb scoreless draw against a strong Vorskla Poltava at the Butovsky Stadium in eastern Ukraine last night.

But it could have been even better for the Bit O’ Red, who had two goals disallowed in a remarkable display in 28 degrees heat.

They did, however, have goalkeeper Brendan Clarke to thank for keeping them in the game in the opening half.

With Roman Bezus pulling the strings in the playmaker’s role, Rovers struggled to get to grips with the hosts early on, and Clarke pulled off outstanding saves to deny the attacker and Ahmed Januzi.

He also twice denied Armend Dallku, who crept in behind Conor Powell early on, as the full-back took a little time to get into the pace of the game in his first start for the club.

Powell was outstanding for the remainder of the match, however, and, with Jason McGuinness, Gavin Peers and Alan Keane all excelling, Rovers settled into their normal pattern.

Indeed McGuinness had the ball in the net from a Joseph Ndo corner on 31 minutes, but he was adjudged to have kicked the ball from goalkeeper Sergiy Velychko’s hands.

In the second half, Peers also found the net from another delivery from the outstanding Ndo, but again Lithuanian ref Geminas Mazieka spotted a foul.

But Rovers still had two great chances to claim an away goal in a second period that they dominated.

The first fell to the tireless Alan Kirby after Velychko could only flick Raffaele Cretaro’s cross into his path, but Kirby’s shot rose just too high and hit the crossbar. Cretaro himself then cleverly got in behind the Vorskla defence to capitalise on some slack play, but his shot narrowly missed the top corner. Nonetheless it was a superb result from the Airtricity League leaders, who host the return leg at the Showgrounds next Thursday.

POLTAVA: Velychko, Dallku, Chesnakov, Kurilov, Selin, Krasnoporov, Rebenok, Kryvosheienko (Sachko 81), Markoski (Zakaliuka ht), Bezus (Oberemko 73), Januzi.

SLIGO ROVERS: Clarke, Keane, McGuinness, Peers, Powell, Cretaro (Davoren 76), Ndo, Ryan, Kirby, Greene (Doyle 63), Blinkhorn (Russell 90).

Referee: G Mazeika (Lithuania).