Cork City made it two wins out of two in their defence of the Premier Division title they won last season. They beat Munster rivals Waterford 2-0 in Turner’s Cross thanks to goals from Gearoid Morrissey and Garry Buckley. Dundalk continue to have issues in front of goal as they played out a goal-less draw for the second game in succession. This week against Shamrock Rovers in the Tallaght Stadium. Even though the season is only two weeks old that four-point gap will be of a slight concern to the Lillywhites. They did sign another striker during the week bringing in Marco Tagbajumi who has played for a number of clubs in different countries and was most recently with Norwegian side Lillestrom.
St. Patrick’s Athletic beat Bray Wanderers 2-1 in the Carlisle Grounds. Conan Byrne and Christy Fagan with their goals. Gary McCabe replied for Bray. Limerick and Bohemian FC played out a 1-1 draw in the Markets Field. Cian Coleman put the home side in front with Eoghan Stokes equalising for Bohs in the 90th minutes.
The transfer window in Ireland closes at the end of the month and one side who were very active during the week were Sligo Rovers. Manager Gerard Lyttle brought in three new players. Goalkeeper Mitchell Beeney and defender Alun Waters came in on loan from Chelsea and Kilmarnock respectively. Both will be with the club until the Summer. Defender Patrick McClean was signed on a two-year deal from Waterford. Beeney and McClean made their debuts for the club in Rovers 2-1 win against Derry City. Adam Morgan and Alistair Roy scored the goals with Ronan Curtis pulling one back late on for Derry.
The First Division got underway at the weekend as well and it provided the biggest talking point in the league. The meeting of Drogheda United and Finn Harps was postponed minutes before kick-off as the referee felt that the floodlights weren’t strong enough. Drogheda put out a statement saying they had new bulbs ordered but that they hadn’t arrived yet. The game will be rescheduled.
Galway United got their campaign off to a strong start winning 4-1 at home against Athlone Town. Danny Furlong marking his debut for the club with a hat-trick. Cabinteely are strongly fancied to be in the mix for promotion this season, but they suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat against Wexford in their opening game. UCD came from behind to beat Shelbourne 2-1 and Longford Town and Cobh Ramblers drew 2-2 in the City Calling Stadium.