New Rovers regime battles hard to win first skirmish

ALAN O'NEILL's "green and white army" was the chant from the stands and the new player manager, did describe the proceedings afterwards as a bit of a battle. For much of his first match in charge, however, Rovers looked more like our average United Nat tons outfit full of threats and postures, but not too hot when, it comes to doing something that might actually make a major difference.

Scoring, had become something of a forgotten art around the RDS, with the last successful strike by a Rovers player coming back in early December, but Derek Tracey finally found the net for the home side after 74 minutes of play yesterday.

Assistant manager Terry Eviston praised the efforts of his side afterwards, and pointed to the greater penetration achieved as compared to last Sunday's performance against Sligo. For most of the match, though. that meant that Rovers simply blundered directly in front of goal rather than in their approach play.

Certainly Tracey should have had them ahead after just three minutes when he picked up on a poorly struck backpass from John Coady, only to send his shot hopelessly left of the mark. Derek McGrath also shot wide while John Toal forced Mick Doohan to clear off the line when both men might have been expected to score.

As the half wore on, Dundalk began to naive their own share of chances from a scrappy midfield tussle, but when presented with the opportunity to test the Rovers manager, practising his more familiar trade, neither Doohan nor Peter Withnell were any more clinical than their opponents.

As the half drew to a close it seemed that the upper hand might eventually be gained by the visitors on the basis of numerical superiority. five of the Dubliners had managed to get themselves booked. Full back Ray Carolan was one of the five, hut despite the risk of being sent off he did remarkably well shortly after the restart to end Withnell's advance into the box with a beautifully timed challenge.

The replacement of the injured McGrath by Sean Francis forced the abandonment of a five man midfield and presented a rare opportunity to see what Ray Treacy's summer buys could manage when paired together upfront. Although there wasn't much by way of telepathy in evidence between Francis and Mark Reid the duo did enough to leave O'Neill optimistic about their future.

Reid eventually set up Tracey for the goal, the midfielder showing the sort of instinct that has been sadly missing from, the club for the previous 783 minutes of play with a nicely struck side footed shot from just outside the area.

On the balance of play, the goal was probably a fair reflection of the difference between the two sides, hut that is not to say that Dundalk didn't have their chances to find the net. Stephen Kelly, drew a fine stop from O'Neill shortly before the goal, and Keith Long really should have beaten the keeper within a minute of it. Brian Byrne picked out brilliantly at the far post, but the subsequent header was harmlessly misdirected.