Shamrock Rovers confirm place in next round of Conference League as drab draw with St Joseph's seals easy aggregate win

The Irish Sun

a day ago

WHILST their next game was decided by a sudden-death penalty shootout in Kosovo, this was of the more slow and painful variety.
A 4-0 win in the first leg meant that this had none of the jeopardy attached to Larne beating Prishtina on spot-kicks.
2
Shamrock Rovers drew 0-0 with St Joseph's to confirm their place in the next round of the Conference League
Credit: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
2
They will face Ballkani in the next round
Credit: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
The relevance of that to Rovers was the absence of a second Kosovan side in the
next
round of the
As a result their league game against
And precious little happened on the pitch to distract attention from what came next for the Hoops.
If a comfortable first-leg win had provided
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In the event, he made six changes to his team with Cian Barrett - son of former player Graham - starting in
He lined up in an otherwise experienced midfield including one senior
Josh
Honohan, as well as Danny Grant.
And those combinations of youth and experience were elsewhere in the team as well with Michael Noonan, on his 17th birthday, partnered by 35-year-old Rory Gaffney.
And, in defence, Cory O'Sullivan had Roberto Lopes and Gary O'Neill to show him the ropes.
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Despite the unfamiliar look of the side, there was still an expectation that Rovers would have too much for the visitors on the night and might even match or surpass their
record
aggregate European win of 7-0 against FRAM Reykjavik 43 years ago.
But it soon became clear that this was a game which they simply wanted to negotiate without over-exerting themselves or picking up any unnecessary injuries with no real impetus to perform to their potential.
League of Ireland mascots compete in charity race in Naas
There were times before he went off that Gaffney looked a danger but his marker Geovanni Barba impressed and, indeed, provided the pass for St Joseph's best chance before the break.
The part-timers had the first chance of the game when Manuel Sánchez picked out Jayce Olivero but he blazed over the bar.
Almost immediately, at the other end, Gaffney cut in from the right and extracted a good save from keeper Bradley Banda.
Grant was quickest to the rebound but he fired well over when he would have expected to have further tested Banda.
Just after the hour mark, Barba played a slide-rule pass through to Javi Forján but Ed McGinty was alert to the danger, racing off his line to deny him.
They carved out more openings before the interval when, after Juan Pena appealed for a penalty, Angel Martinez was unable to keep his effort on
target
.
Given how the first half had gone, and a desire to manage the minutes of some of his older players, it was no surprise to see a double substitute before the restart.
Lee Grace was sent on for Lopes with John McGovern coming on for Gaffney.
The changes did not yield an immediate improvement, although Noonan did force Banda into action, with a further three changes made just after the hour mark.
They saw Dylan Watts, Danny Mandroiu and Sean Kavanagh brought on in a bid to give the home crowd something to shout about.
But, although they were clearly tiring, the part-timers continued to apply themselves and ensure that the home side got nothing easily.
They occasionally threatened on the break too with substitute Pablo Rodriguez getting on the end of a cross but he was unable to direct his header on target and, in any case, he was flagged for offside.
Captain Juanma did better when he got on the end of Adrien Armental's cross but McGinty made a comfortable save.
SUN
STAR
MAN
: Gabriel Barba (St Joseph's)
SHAMROCK ROVERS
: McGinty 7; O'Neill 7, Lopes 7 (Grace 46, 7), O'Sullivan 7; Grant 6, Barrett 6, Byrne 6 (Kavanagh 63, 5), McEneff 6 (Watts 63, 5), Honohan 6 (Mandroiu 63. 5); Noonan 6, Gaffney 6 (McGovern 46, 5).
ST JOSEPH'S
: Banda 6; Volz 6, Cardozo 6 (Paul 79, 4), Barba 7, Olivero 6; Gibson 5 (Amental 46, 5), Juanma 6, Pena 6 (Rodriguez 60, 5), Sanchez 6, Martinez 6; Forján 6 (Santos 65, 4).
REFEREE
: G Macedonqi (Sweden)