Waterford FC 1 Shamrock Rovers 5
Report by Matt Keane
A stunning first-half brace from man of the match Jack Byrne was the catalyst to Shamrock Rovers keeping the pressure on leaders Dundalk as the Tallaght outfit defeated a beleaguered Waterford FC at the RSC last night with Aaron Greene also netting twice in a 5-1 success. Byrne is in Mick McCarthy's squad for the upcoming European qualifying games against Bulgaria and Switzerland and his display in this game will certainly help him feature in those games.
The Blues next league game is against Shamrock Rovers once again on Tuesday night next in The Tallaght Stadium.
The Hoops nearly got off to a flying start inside the opening two minutes when they forced a corner out on the left after a mistake from Maxi Kouogun that saw Jack Byrne whip in the ball that picked out Lee Grace, but his header went wide of Matt Connor’s back post.
Roberto Lopes went close to breaking the deadlock from another Byrne set-piece on 22 minutes when the central defender got on the end of another left-wing flag-kick, but his towering header flashed wide of the target.
After his call up to the Republic of Ireland senior squad for the upcoming Internationals against Switzerland and Bulgaria, Byrne turned the game on its head with two stunning goals in the space of a five-minute period.
The first arrived on 25 minutes when a Kevin Lynch clearance was picked up by Aaron Greene, who slipped the ball to the unstoppable midfielder and he powered a 30-yard right-footed shot that Matt Connor got a hand to but couldn’t prevent the ball finding the net.
He was celebrating his second goal of the contest five minutes later when Ronan Finn did all the spadework before laying it off to Byrne and after getting past Tom Holland, his cracking strike from a similar distance whilst slipping fizzed past Connor.
Waterford’s only chance during that one-sided first half came in injury time when Cory Galvin picked up possession on the edge of the penalty area, but his well-struck effort went wide of Alan Mannus’ left-hand upright.
Blues boss Alan Reynolds introduced both Sam Bone and Dean Walsh at the half time break and it was the latter that had the first chance of the second period on 54 minutes when he got on the end of Walter Figueira’s right-wing cross, but his first time shot was high over the crossbar.
JJ Lunney gave the visitors a helping hand when the midfielder gifted Rovers their third goal on 61 minutes when he played a back pass straight to Aaron Greene, who couldn’t believe his luck when he was faced with only Matt Connor to beat as he finished coolly from 16 yards.
It was the brilliance of Jack Byrne that carved out a superb fourth for Stephen Bradley’s side eight minutes when he picked out Greene’s run with a stunning ball and he lobbed the ball over the advancing Connor from 30 yards.
Cory Galvin scored a fantastic consolation goal for the hosts on 78 minutes when he let fly with an unbelievable right-footed strike from 30 yards after he had taken a pass from Dean Walsh on the left-side of the area.
It was Shamrock Rovers that completed the scoring with adding a fifth goal on 88 minutes when Graham Burke got free down the left channel before crossing to the back post where Thomas Oluwa was on hand to tap home to an empty net as the Blues suffered their heaviest league defeat of the season.
WATERFORD FC: Connor, Feely, Browne, Kouogun, Slevin, Lynch (Bone ’46), Lunney (Poynton ’70), Duggan, Holland (Walsh ’46), Galvin, Figueira.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus, Boyle, Lopes, Grace, Watts, Finn (B. Kavanagh ’69), S. Kavanagh, Greene (Oluwa ’76), Byrne, O’Neill, Cummins (Burke ’41)
Referee: Rob Harvey (Dublin)
