Plenty of ups and downs in week 11 of the Airtricity League. Here's our take-aways.
1) Summer football is a myth
Last night's game between Sligo Rovers and Dundalk was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. Sligo's pitch is always one of the league's best but severe rain gave the referee no option to call it off. With FAI and League Cup ties in the next forthnight and Champions League qualifiers (and all the re-arrnaging that brings) not long after the break, Sligo really could've done without this headache.
The duck is currently overseeing the inspection. He will give his result shortly. twitter.com/sligorovers/st…
— Sligo Rovers (@sligorovers) May 18, 2013
2) As long as Derry City have Rory Patterson they'll be title contenders
Patterson moved to the top of the scoring charts with 2 in Derry's dramatic 3-2 win away to Drogheda United. Drogs had fought back from 2-0 down to level through their own talisman Fabio O'Brien, only for Patterson to score the winner in thelast 5 minutes. He missed large chunks of last season through injury and if Derry are to challenge they'll need to keep him fit this term. Not many would argue he's currently the league's hottest striker.
3) Derby games between Bohs and Rovers always count
Despite Neil Doyle's disgraceful penalty award against Bohemians, they managed to strike late to salvage a point away to arch-rivals Shamrock Rovers. The result leaves Rovers almost exactly in mid-table as they lie 12 points behind joint-leaders Sligo Rovers and St Pat's and also 12 points ahead of bottom side Shels. Bohs point keeps them in the bottom 4, but as you can see from the reaction of Bohs fans to Ryan McEvoy's injury time equaliser, this game still matters.
4) Christy Fagan has the best beard in the League and may be coming back to form
There are plenty of League of Ireland players currently growing beards for a variety of charities, including Pats team mate Conan Byrne, but no beard comes close to the majesty of Christy Fagan's. Fagan scored the opening two goals in Pats' 3-0 win over strugglings Shels on Friday night. The striker now has 3 goals in 3 games after starting the season with no goals in 9. With Sligo having Elding (10) and Derry having Patterson (11) topping the charts, Pats leading scorers are only on 4. They'll need Fagan to reach at least 15 by season's end.
5) Shels new manager has a huge job on his hands
Alan Mathews resigned as Shelbourne boss on Thursday leaving first team coach Kevin Doherty in temporary charge. Whoever gets the job will oversee a team that have earned only 6 points, scored only 6 goals and have earned a league leading 6 red cards. After Bray Wanderer's big win in Cork on Friday, Shels are now 5 points behind the second bottom team. Thier next 4 games include games with Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers and Derry City. Shels competed well with Pats for the first half of Friday's derby game but capitulated after the opening goal.
There's a full round of EA Sports Cup action on Monday & Tuesday and the leahue resume next Friday.
