Rovers retain Molly O’Toole Cup

SHAMROCK Rovers retained the annual Molly O’Toole Memorial Cup when they met, sister club, Lucan United in the Roadstone Ground and won on a 2-0 scoreline last Saturday.

This was a cracking game and it’s a pity there weren’t more goals on offer to warm up the large crowd on a cold afternoon.

However, that’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of action in each area, there was, but when you analyse this game the simple fact was that Rovers deserved to win.

It took Lucan a good 20 minutes to get into any kind of rhythm, and the fact that they played a Leinster Senior League game on Friday night didn’t help their cause either.

But Rovers started faster than a LUAS heading from the City Centre to Tallaght, so much so that they were two goals to the good inside the opening 13 minutes.

They could have gone ahead in the opening two minutes when Markus Poom drove in a daisy cutter that Mark Smith could only parry, but Darragh McConville cleared the loose ball.

United may have survived that but two minutes later they were behind, as Neil Ferrugia slipped the ball to Gideon Tetteh and he found Naj Razi who slotted home.

Lucan United lost out 2-0 to Shamrock Rovers in the O’Toole Cup

Rovers then doubled that lead on 13 minutes, this time when Dylan Watts played the ball over the defence to Razi, who turned a defender before picking his spot.

It was a blow to Lucan and, really, at that point I’m sure everyone were thinking the same thing, this might get worse for United as time moves on.

But, in fairness, they weathered the storm and began to get a grip on things from around the 20 minute mark.

They had a couple of half chances as the half drew to a close, but nothing to really shout about, but that all changed in the second half.

Rovers introduced almost a complete new team and still had their fair share of the ball, but Lucan gained that little bit extra confidence.

They began to create chances and rattled the Rovers back four for the first time, with Sean Quin and Danny Mhondiwa both rattling a post while they also had an effort cleared off the line.

It’s a pity they didn’t find the net as it would have been interesting to see Rovers reaction, as they just had to move the ball around and not concede.

But there are bigger fish to fry for Lucan as they chase the LSL Senior Division title, and if they were to take anything away from Saturday’s game it’s that they won’t meet anyone of the calibre of Rovers in the race to the wire.

LUCAN UNITED: Mark Smith, Gareth Matthews, Sean Quinn, Johno Lukaso, Brian Connaughton, Darragh McConville, Dean Ebbe, Danny mhondiwa, Nika Arevadze, Anthony Kavanagh, Marco Chindea.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Leon Pohls, Cian Barrett, Josh Honohan, Conan Noonan, Naj Razi, Dylan Watts, Markus Poom, Corey O’Sullivan, Neil Farrugia, Darragh Marshall, Gideon Tetteh.

MATCH OFFICIALS: David Dunne, Robert Clarke, Darren Carey.