Cobh can drive on from Longford Town victory when they host Finn Harps
FORTRESS: Cobh Ramblers will hope to be tougher to beat at St Colman's Park for the rest of the season than they were in the opener against Wexford. Picture: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile
Cobh Ramblers will look to record back-to-back league wins when they host Finn Harps at St Colman’s Park this evening, 7.45pm.
Fran Rockett and his players will go into this game relieved after holding out to defeat Longford Town 2-1 at Bishopsgate last Saturday, a result that moved the club up to seventh in the table.
The Ramblers are focusing solely on Finn Harps, as the players look to build on last week’s away win versus Longford.
Rockett named a rejigged team from the one that was downed 3-0 on Opening Night by Wexford at St Colman’s Park.
There were two changes as Brendeán Frahill and Claudio Osorio made way for Mikey Carroll and Rhys Brennan, with Gary Buckley named as captain instead of Shane Griffin at left back.
The tinkered group began well by limiting the home side to half-chances, with runs from players like Daragh Murtagh coming to nothing early on. The Ramblers slowly found themselves in an attacking sense at the other end of the pitch, beginning with a Rhys Brennan strike that was stopped by Kian Moore.
The loanee from Bohemians made up for the miss with his next touch inside the area, and it was enough to give Cobh the lead in the 17th minute.
Longford tried to immediately get back in the game, their issue was getting through a backline marshalled by Cian Coleman and Gary Buckley. They worked in tandem, while Shane Griffin and Honohan were quick to close down in wide positions as Jason Abbott covered ground in front of the defence.
Each player did their job, and this was more than enough to stamp out the push for an equaliser.
The Ramblers soaked up the pressure before breaking and creating a number of half-chances inside the area. Eventually one fell to Honohan, who was able to drive the ball home in the 38th minute.
Longford did pull one back in the second half, through an Aaron Doran penalty, leading to a frantic push for an equaliser.
Ramblers took a step back in response, as they closed down and stopped the home side from playing through, something that was helped by three key substitutions at key moments.
Brian Linehan was the start of this, with the U20 replacing Abbott as the holding midfielder in the 70th minute.
Rhys Kelly-Noonan and Lucas Curtin were also introduced, for Kai O’Neill and Wilson Waweru, and the fresh legs helped cover gaps as Longford went wide their quest to get a first point of the season.
The Ramblers will attempt to build on this performance against a Finn Harps side that picked up their first points of the campaign last week by defeating UCD 2-1 at Ballybofey.
Kevin McHugh’s team welcomed the Students on the back of an away defeat to Athlone Town and they hit the ground running in the 10th minute with a Shaunie Brennan goal.
That was a just reward for a Harps outfit that began the night by limiting UCD to just one chance, from a Ciaran Beehan free-kick in the fifth minute.
That was followed by chances for Max Hutchinson and Perrault Tokam, during a frantic spell that accumulated in Bradley getting around Eanna Clancy and scoring with his left boot.
Conor Tourish got the second on the hour mark, by collecting a Bradley pass from a move kept alive by Tony McNamee. The Students did make it 2-1, through Ciaran Behan, but there was no big finish as the home side buckled down and stopped the frantic push for an equaliser.
Harps are now emboldened, and coming down to the Great Island in search of consecutive wins themselves.
The Ramblers know this, and will be totally focused on getting their first home win of the campaign given the lingering disappointment from opening night at St Colman’s Park.
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