Lyons heads Hoops winner to boost momentum ahead of Euro draw
Andy Lyons of Shamrock Rovers celebrates after scoring his side's goal. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
This was everything Shamrock Rovers wanted in the parlous predicament, another European win to uplift momentum for the more important matters of a draw in Istanbul on Friday.
Four unanswered goals in Budapest last week had Ferencváros coasting towards the Europa League group with the 90 minutes to come but the mission of at least sustaining their 100% record in Europe this year was achieved thanks to a late winner by Andy Lyons.
His demotion to the bench underlined the pragmatism Stephen Bradley applied to the second leg. Conference League group stages were guaranteed regardless of this outcome and there’s the vital business of attempting to complete the double for the first time in almost 40 years.
That Dylan Watts, Rory Gaffney, Daniel Cleary and Lyons were kept in reserve for Sunday’s last-16 FAI Cup tie in Drogheda United was a calculated risk Stephen Bradley felt worthy.
With the Hungarians content to settle for stalemate, management sensed victory was there for the taking and the introduction of Lyons and other mainstays for the last 20 minutes paid off.
Another 7,000 plus turnout for yearning for a goal and it seemed to be eluding them when an 87th-minute shot by Lyons on the run was turned around the post by Adam Bogdan.
However, the former Liverpool goalkeeper was helpless to deny the latest recruit from Bohemians arriving on cue to powerfully head in the resultant corner from fellow substitute Jack Byrne.
It stitched on a fourth win to the Hoops’ perfect home record since the journey began eight games ago in early July and was merited for their endeavour. Justin Ferizaj, still only 17, showed they on the front foot by attempting a delicious curler on 26 minutes that was inches from nestling in the top corner.
At the other end, the ever-consistent Alan Mannus denied Ryan Mmaee’s header on the stroke of halftime. Bogdan stooped low to bat away Sean Kavanagh’s free-kick 10 minutes after the restart but the breakthrough they pined – improving their coefficient for future campaigns too – eventually came.
All eyes will now be trained on Friday’s Conference League draw, the ceremony for which begins at 1pm. If Thursday’s Champions League equivalent is anything to go by, there’ll be plethora of preliminaries to navigate before the real business starts.
Contained with the last 32 of Uefa’s newest competition, just the second year since inception, will be a potpourri of participants, traced from three sources.
Rovers will be among the 10 teams dropping into the third tier having been eliminated in the Europa League. 17 other such as West Ham United, Villareal and Fiorentina emerged through what’s categorised as the main path, while there’s five places reserved from the Champions route.
One of the unintended advantages of Rovers bowing out of the Europa League is the more moderate opposition heightening the prospects of extracting points.
A single victory over the six game series will gross €500,000, almost double the gap in prize-money Rovers missed out on. A draw is worth €166,000 but the main legwork in swelling their largesse lurching towards €5m was expended by beating the league winners from Malta and Macedonia in the Champions and Europa League respectively.
What will also hearten hopes is their status as third seeds, confirmed indirectly on Thursday night by Sheriff beating Pyunik in a penalty shootout.
While it doesn’t affect the likelihood of landing at least one marquee name, glancing downwards at a beatable opponent offers optimism of points and prize-money.
Rovers did assess the benefits of switching their upcoming games to the Aviva Stadium, as Bohemians did last year amid Covid restrictions, but it was only in the case they’d reached the Europa League, where Arsenal and Manchester United reside, that demand for tickets would warrant relocating.
Tallaght, where they staged their 2011 Europa League series against Tottenham, Rubin Kazan and PAOK , will remain their home, with the first encounter, home or away, scheduled for September 8. The campaign stretches till November 3, finishing up in lots of time for the pre-World Cup friendlies and the tournament in Qatar.
: A Mannus; S Gannon , L Grace, S Hoare; R Finn (A Lyons 64), G O'Neill, S Kavanagh (J Byrne 73), N Farrugia; J Ferizaj (D Watts 73), R Towell (G Tetteh 72); A Emakhu (A Greene 64).
S Gannon (60), (60), (69), A Lyons; R Gaffney (60), (Gideon Tetteh 78).
A Bogdan; H Wingo, M Knoester, A Kovacevic, E Civic; A Laidouni, A Esiti (Marquinhos 62), T Nguen (X Mercier 71); C Auzqui (B Vecsei 63), R Mmaee (F Boli 70), A Traore (K Lisztes 78).
Referee: Francois Letexier (FRA).
7163.
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