Sligo are overrun in second period

For a club where the players probably still have to wear name badges when they go training, Sligo Rovers have done remarkably well in the campaign to date. However, against a side which has been carefully constructed over a couple of years they always looked second best and three second half goals decided a highly entertaining clash in favour of the Dubliners, who have yet to drop a point at home.

The tag with "Hi, I'm Falcon Rose" must have raised a few eyebrows around the Showgrounds since the 25-year-old South African arrived back in August. His form, though, and in particular his four goals have been a key factor in the strong start made by Nicky Reid's team.

On his second trip to Dublin he played well but not, as it was to turn out, as well as one of the local boys on show. But then this is a lesson every forward learns in this league sooner or later . . . when Stephen Geoghegan is on song even the best of the imports have to settle for the back seat.

Geoghegan finished last season as the division's top scorer but then spent the summer laid low with TB. Already, however, there are clear signs that he is back to something approaching his very best with the 27-year-old last night scoring his fourth goal in three games and contributing heavily to the game's two others.

Sligo must have wondered what had hit them in the second half for through the first they had competed well with the locals, causing problems through the centre and down the left although notably not to any great extent in front of goal where Pat Scully, Tony McCarthy and Alan Gough all looked solid.

Rose did threaten on a couple of occasions, setting Steve Jones away down the right after 24 minutes, when Gough timed the sprint off his line well, and then running rings around Declan Geoghegan only to misjudge what looked certain to be a dangerous cross.

At the other end Dessie Baker seemed more central to the action than his striking partner but after the teenager had fired just wide, Geoghegan gave a glimpse of what he is capable of when slipping the ball past Lee Shearer and then winning a corner when heavily outnumbered in front of goal.

Five minutes into the second half, though, and he went one better. Baker did well initially to move the ball out of the Shelbourne half but his pass was poor. Geoghegan dropped back well to meet it, however, and when the defenders made the error of standing off, he sent the ball soaring over Mark Westhead and into the top right corner from the edge of the area.

A few seconds later he over-hit an attempt to replicate the goal when Reid slipped up and 15 minutes later it was his presence behind Ian Lynch that forced the long serving Rovers centre half to turn Mark Rutherford's low ball from the left past his own goalkeeper.

Rutherford, in this superb form himself since the summer break, might have added the third near the end when he headed just over but two minutes from time Geoghegan sent Baker through and the former Manchester United man, given plenty of time to glance up and pick his spot, powered the ball low, across the face of the goal and into the bottom left corner.