LOI talking points: Hennessy's courage, Basement Rovers and Waterford's fast start
RIGHT DECISION: Referee Rob Hennessy speaks with Shelbourne manager Damien Duff. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
While the game ended in controversy with the dismissal of Cork City manager Tim Clancy at the final whistle, Waterford’s storming start to the season warrants attention.
One win in their final nine games last season scotched early hopes of the Blues featuring in European competition for the first time in almost 40 years.
Keith Long addressed the experience deficit by adding stalwarts such as Andy Boyle and they’ve raced to the summit from recording away wins at Sligo Rovers and Derry City and coming from behind to beat City. Their sole slip-up was a 1-0 defeat to champions Shelbourne.
With former Shels attacker Matty Smith still to come from injury, fervour around the south-east club’s campaign could ramp up. Their hope is to remain in the top half rather than petering out to a seventh-placed finish like last year.
Referee’s volte face sets a difficult precedent Shelbourne and Galway United both remain unbeaten after a spirited second half in Eamonn Deacy Park.
This game will forever be remembered for the chaotic scenes that surrounded Galway United’s equaliser.
Although Regan Donelon’s corner went in off a Shels head, linesman Darren Corcoran flagged for offside. Some reports suggested that the referee overruled him to award the goal.
In actuality, the referee initially backed his linesman and disallowed the goal, whistling for a free-kick and gesticulating for offside.
This created pandemonium, but Greg Cunningham played a captain’s role, calmly explaining the error to referee Rob Hennessy. On realising the mistake, Hennessy showed admirable courage to reverse his decision and allow the goal.
Damien Duff showed his quality again in his post-match comments, accepting that the right decision had been arrived at and credited the officials.
Nonetheless, it was an incredibly rare event, one that only Ollie Horgan could provide a precedent for, citing a Cork City and Finn Harps game in 2020.
The unfortunate upshot will be that incidents like this will do little to stifle dissent in the future. There is now a piece of evidence that a referee can change his mind. A hard job might get even harder.
An eventful night at the Showgrounds left with it a number of takeaways as Sligo Rovers picked up their first win of the new campaign and in doing so, sent title chasing Shamrock Rovers to the foot of the table.
There was a huge pre-match call from Sligo boss John Russell to drop goalkeeper Sam Sargeant after the recently signed net-minder conceded ten goals in his first three outings for the Bit O'Red.
Reserve goalkeeper Conor Walsh was called up for this win over the Hoops and although he didn't find himself under severe pressure thanks to a Sligo defence who protected him well, particularly in the final 10 minutes.
The Mayo man will certainly be at the front of boss Russell's thoughts ahead of an already crucial trip to Cork City on Friday.
Top of the agenda has to be Shamrock Rovers' poor start to 2025. To take just one point from their opening three is way off the standard expected of a team who looked so steady in their European campaign last winter.
Stephen Bradley must be concerned by the Dubliners' inability to wrestle control of this game from Sligo, despite the introduction of the likes of Aaron McEneff, Graham Burke and Rory Gaffney from the bench.
The Tallaght faithful will expect much better from their title winning stars in the weeks to come.
This match was rendered effectively over by a controversial red – in his defence, the referee was keen to keep his cards unseen in general – but one left the ground wondering how much hard currency will be wasted on this Derry squad.
City disappointed in Europe last season but did not even qualify for 2025.
Tiernan Lynch has been granted a budget that the likes of John Russell can only hypothesise about, yet the addition of veteran recruits from Britain has its risks. None of their four recruits on Monday had League of Ireland experience.
Clearly, they have decent players but they need time and they barely created a chance in the match. Moreover, Pat's were able to open them up easily.
So Derry have lost three of their first four games, and already look at best in the push for European places, despite prizing players away from the SPL with hugely attractive contracts.
With the footballing quality of the likes of Dawson Devoy and Ross Tierney in your side, why can’t Bohemians get it right?
A rousing victory over arch-rivals Shamrock Rovers before 33,000 at the Aviva Stadium in their opening match looked to herald a bright season ahead for Bohs after finishing eighth last year.
But it’s not been built on. Narrow defeats in Derry and Cork were followed by a truly abject showing in losing 1-0 to Drogheda United at Dalymount on Monday night, the frustrated Gypsies faithful booing the team at both half-time and more loudly on the final whistle.
While acknowledging it’s simply not good enough, head coach Alan Reynolds believes it’s simply down to a lack of confidence.
A belief in themselves Bohs will need to quickly discover ahead of Friday’s visit to surprise league leaders Waterford where Rennie made his reputation as a player and manager.
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