Brilliant Woods hat-trick puts Rovers back on track

Billy Woods scored a brilliant hat-trick before being unceremoniously kicked out of the game at Morton Stadium. The Shamrock Rovers winger tormented Drogheda throughout the match, scoring three glorious goals, before two dreadful challenges resulted in him leaving the field with an ankle injury. Referee Hugh Byrne booked Darren O'Keeffe for the first, and worst, tackle before sending off Stephen Roche for the second within 60 seconds.

It left a sour taste with Rovers' manager Damien Richardson. "The worst thing in football is an over the top challenge," said an irate Richardson. "The referee saw the first tackle and for him to brandish only a yellow card was unacceptable.

"That simply gave Drogheda carte-blanche to do it again, which they did. Billy Woods has a badly bruised ankle and is lucky not to have a broken leg."

Sloppy marking left Woods free to collect a quick throw from Tommy Dunne and the winger had time to tee-up his right foot drive and drill the ball under Justin O'Neill's from 15 yards for Rovers first goal on 23 minutes.

It should have been 2-0 on the half-hour. Graham Lawlor picked out Jason Colwell with a superb ball but the finish failed to match it as Colwell shot tamely at O'Neill.

The Rovers midfielder made amends four minutes later when he whipped the ball into the Drogheda area following Matt Britton's probings up the right. And Woods once again lost McDonald to score with a delightful scissors kick from 15 yards.

The game was over as a contest within five minutes of the restart when O'Neill flapped at a Marc Kenny corner and Sean Francis helped Shane Jackson's header over the line.

It was Woods's day, however, and he completed his hat-trick within five minutes when Kenny played him in on the left and O'Neill had no answer to the power of Woods's shot that flew into the far corner of the net.

Drogehda got a goal back two minutes later when Mark Byrne's shot deflected off Jackson to loop over the head of Robbie Horgan in the Rovers goal.

Shamrock Rovers: Horgan; Britton, Jackson, Palmer, Dunne; Byrne, Colwell, Kenny, Woods; Lawlor, Francis. Subs: Brazil and Robinson for Jackson and Byrne (both 74 mins.), Purdy for Woods (inj. 82 mins).

Drogheda United: O'Neill; McDonald, Impey, Maher, Cronin; C. Murphy, O'Keeffe, O'Dowd, Roche; Coleman, Nugent. Subs: M. Byrne for McDonald (36 mins.), McCann for Nugent (62 mins.), Boyle for O'Keeffe (78 mins).

Referee: H Byrne (Dublin).