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 How much Shamrock Rovers have earned so far in Europe and what they could bank against APOEL 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.” 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, b.