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Hoops stun Drogs at United Park

Saturday 26th May 2007, 12:23 am

Graham Gartland, Drogheda United.

Photo by Tom Carey.

Two Tadhg Purcell goals gave Shamrock Rovers a shock 2-0 win on their trip to face Drogheda United at United Park tonight.

Rovers' best result of the season condemned the Drogs to a second straight league loss and saw them slip eight points behind leaders St. Pats.

Having demolished what was effectively Drogheda's youth team last month, Rovers repeated the feat against the Drogs first team. Rovers had shouts for a penalty in the early going before Dave O'Connor tested Miko Vilmunen as Drogheda's defence had a shaky start.

Drogheda came more into proceedings as time passed and Stuart Byrne narrowly missed the target although the Rovers defence was doing well to charge down when Drogheda players set themselves for shots.

Purcell opened the scoring on 38 minutes when he fired home from Ger Rowe's cross.

Stephen Bradley came close to levelling after the break but Rovers keeper Barry Murphy pulled off a fantastic save to push his long range shot against the woodwork and away.

Drogheda's hopes of a revival were seriously hampered when Graham Gartland was shown a straight red card after an off the ball clash with Purcell on 56 minutes.

It didn't take the Hoops long to make the extra man count and Purcell grabbed his second of the night on 64 minutes. In similar circumstances to the first, Rowe crossed and Purcell finished to make it 2-0.

With Murphy in fine form, Drogheda never had much chance of getting back from that point and must now regroup ahead of their trip to Sligo next week.

Drogheda United : Vilmunen, Lynch, Shelley, Gartland, Webb, Robinson, Byrne, Bradley (Keegan 59), Cahill (Keddy 84), Zayed, Fitzpatrick.
Shamrock Rovers : Murphy, G O'Brien, Ferguson, Price, Pender, Cassidy, Danny O'Connor, Ryan, Dave O'Connor (Barrett 90), Rowe (Myler 84), Purcell.