Shamrock Rovers goal hero Dylan Watts hails special European night

Shamrock Rovers kicked off their Europa Conference League campaign with a point thanks to Dylan Watts' injury-time header.

Goal hero Dylan Watts hailed a “special night” for Shamrock Rovers - as the Hoops banked a point and a €133,000 cheque in their Europa Conference League opener at home to APOEL.

His 92nd minute header from Jack Byrne’s corner gave the 10-man Hoops a share of the spoils, something that looked unlikely after Neil Farrugia’s 50th minute red card.

Cyprus international Konstantinos Laifis opened the scoring nine minutes later and it looked to be curtains for Rovers at that stage.

READ MORE:Dylan Watts scores injury-time equaliser for Shamrock Rovers in Europa Conference League opener

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But a triple substitution in the 77th minute, which saw Watts and Byrne come on, gave the hosts the impetus to press for an equaliser.

And it arrived in an unlikely fashion - from the midfielder’s head.

“No, I can't say I've scored many (headers), to be honest,” he said.

“Obviously we were pushing late on for a goal and we committed four men in the box and luckily I just found myself at the near post and it was a great ball in by Jack, and I managed to get my head on it.”

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Watts added: “They're special nights and they're ones you remember, and when you retire these are the moments that you remember.”

He said the combination of two substitutes showed the depth of the Rovers squad.

“That's what it's all about, we've a lot of games and obviously we know that Europe is really difficult, but when you come onto the pitch you have to make a difference and I think the subs did that tonight,” he said.

Manager Stephen Bradley left some key players, including Watts and Byrne, on the bench last night with Sunday’s game against Shelbourne in mind.

Rovers are trailing Shels by five points in the Premier Division with four games remaining, so last night’s team selection was made with one eye on that game.

“It’s a massive game again, obviously a quick turnaround so look, we'll be ready for that game, obviously it's going to be a difficult game but we're really looking forward to it,” said Watts.

APOEL head coach and former Tottenham winger Jose Dominguez admitted his players were “devastated” by the result.

“We are very disappointed,” he said. “The players are devastated. To come into the first game of this group phase here, we felt we had a team and the capability to win the three points.

“We controlled the game for most parts, we scored, we created the chance to kill the game, but unfortunately we couldn’t put the ball in the net again.

“It’s a big punch in the stomach when you have the game in control and in the last minute of the game you concede.”

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