CLEARY DAYLIGHT FOR HAPPY HOOPS

Dan sets champs on way to a five-point lead at top

BY

SHAMROCK Rovers kept clear daylight between themselves and title chasers Derry City after the Tallaght men saw off Sligo Rovers with ease.

Dan Cleary, Dylan Watts and Graham Burke netted for the Hoops ahead of their trip to Norway to take on Molde in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.

Nando Pijnaker scrambled home Sligo’s consolation in the second half, his first goal for the club.

The result leaves the Dubliners five points clear with five games remaining.

Sligo boss John Russell made four changes from their defeat to Derry with veteran goalkeeper Richard Brush appearing between the sticks for just the fourth time this term.

Ronan Finn was the champions’ only change from their victory over UCD. And well in charge against a meagre Sligo showing in the opening half, Stephen Bradley’s side probably should have been further ahead than the two goals that separated the sides at the break.

There were chances for Gaffney and Burke, both carved from defensive errors, before the Hoops made their dominance count on the quarter hour when Cleary nodded home Sean Kavanagh’s cross.

Gaffney blasted wide after a Shane Blaney mishap five minutes later while the visitors owed their second to some Jack Byrne brilliance seven minutes from the interval.

The playmaker split the heart of both the Sligo midfield and defence with a clever ball into the path of Watts who added a clinical finish. Brush had to close the angle to deny Burke 10 minutes into the second half after Pijnaker got his attempted lay-off all wrong. The league leaders then went within a whisker of a third when Burke fizzed his drive narrowly past the post with Brush well beaten. But another Hoops goal was inevitable and it arrived on 70 minutes when Sligo allowed Gaffney’s ball all the way through to Burke who was left with a simple tap-in at the back stick (inset). Pijnaker turned home Kailin Barlow’s cross as Sligo had the final say.