Sligo Rovers got their first home league win of the new SSE Airtricity League Premier Division on Saturday night with a hard-earned 1-0 win against UCD at the Showgrounds.
The victory backed up their away win against Finn Harps eight days earlier – but in truth, Rovers were fortunate to collect all three points against the students who controlled large periods of the game.
Romeo Parkes gave Rovers the perfect start with a fine finish in the fifth minute after Liam Kerrigan intercepted an attempted UCD clearance.
Listen to commentary of Romeo’s goal as described by Austin O’Callaghan and Alan Keane on The Rovers Hour on Ocean FM on Saturday night:
However, the students got a grip on proceedings thereafter and created the bulk of the goalscoring chances in both halves.
Mitchell Beeney, who again started in place of the injured Ed McGinty, produced a string of fine saves.
Ronan Murray, Liam Kerrigan and Sam Warde all had good chances to score for Rovers – but so too did Yoho Mahdy, Kevin Coffey and the impressive Richie O’Farrell for UCD at the other end. They enjoyed the bulk of possession but couldn’t translate that pressure into an equaliser.
The win moves Rovers onto seven points after five games. UCD stay rooted to the bottom of the table with just a single point.
