Rovers maintain their unbeaten run at home as Derry ends in a draw

SLIGO ROVERS DERRY CITY 0 0

Sligo Rovers’ unbeaten run at home continued this weekend, as third placed Derry City held the Bit o’Red to a 0- 0 draw.

First- half heroics from Candystripes ‘ keeper Ger Doherty in the first- half kept Rovers at bay, with an excellent double save preventing Rovers from taking the lead.

Kenny Shiels’ side knew coming into this game that three points could see them move level with second- placed Cork City, while Rovers could move ahead of Galway United into fifth should they snatch a victory.

Forced to make do without left- back Regan Donelon for a second consecutive week, Dave Robertson opted for midfielder Jimmy Keohane at fullback, the former Exeter man certainly worthy of a man- of- thematch award for his efforts on Saturday night.

Raffaele Cretaro, who netted for his fifth of the season last weekend against Longford Town, could well have given Rovers the lead after ten minutes.

Excellent work from Liam Martin on the right hand side left Derry defender Niclas Vemmelund for dead.

The Donegal man’s ball fell perfectly to the feet of Cretaro, who just took a little too long to take a shot, allowing Conor McCormack sufficient time to steal the ball from his toe. Certainly a let off for the visitors, who would be no push- overs.

But it was an excellent double- stop from Doherty that provided the talking point for the first- half.

The busy Kieran Sadlier played in Martin, and his shot was blocked by the body of the 34- year- old, who then got in the way again to block the follow- up effort from former Peterborough man Sadlier.

Attention at half- time turned to the annual draw, with the club raising € 55,000 from the fundrais- er - an incredible achievement.

Rovers continued their search for the opener into the second- half, and Sadlier came close when he tried to get on the end of a Cretaro cross, but Doherty was alert and equal to it.

The visitors did, however, provide one of the better opportunities of the night. Derry did have their own spell of dominance within the Rovers half, and they could have topped it off with what would have been a contender for goal of the season from Ronan Curtis - his long- range effort just whistling past the post of Micheál Schlingermann.

Sadlier worked his way towards goal from the left- hand side later, but opted to shoot at goal from an awkward angle rather than find a team- mate in front of goal, much to the annoyance of fans. That result leaves Rovers two points behind Galway following their draw with Longford Town on Saturday night, while Derry remain two points behind Cork City. Next up for Rovers is a tricky trip to Wexford on Friday night, where they will play in Ferrycarrig Park for the first ever time. There could very well be a couple of new faces within the squad by that stage.

Sligo Rovers: Micheál Schlingermann, Tobi Adebayo- Rowling, Gavin Peers, Gary Boylan, Jimmy Keohane, Kieran Sadlier, Craig Roddan, John Russell, Daniel Kearns, Liam Martin, Raffaele Cretaro.

Subs: Ciaran Nugent, Chris Lyons, Phil Roberts, Michael Leahy, Mikey Place, Gary Armstrong, Paul Doyle.

Derry: Ger Doherty, Dean Jarvis, Niclas Vemmelund, Ryan McBride, Patrick McClean ( Nathan Boyle, 12), Conor McCormack, Barry McNamee, Aaron McEneff, Ronan Curtis ( Josh Daniels, 87), Rory Patterson, Lucas Schubert.

Subs: Shaun Patton, Harry Monaghan, Jordon Allen, Keith Ward, Aaron Barry.

Referee: Robert Rogers