Shamrock Rovrs1 Sligo Rovers 0:SHAMROCK ROVERS produced a strong second half in this mid-table clash at Tolka Park last night, with Pádraig Amond's 70th- minute goal separating the teams.
Rovers played a clear second best to their opponents in the first half and with just seven minutes gone, Barry Murphy pulled off a fine full-length, fingertip save to keep out Chris Butler's free-kick.
Sligo really should have gone in front on 12 minutes after Romauld Boco had moved the ball out wide to Seán Doherty; Doherty then found the unmarked Brian Cash in acres of space at the far post, but he volleyed wide from five yards out.
Rovers introduced Mark Leech after 50 minutes and he was only on the pitch a few minutes when his dangerous cross from inside the box was cleared off the line by Raphael Cretaro.
Rovers continued to press, with goalkeeper Richard Brush going down to his right to deny Amond. But Brush's good work was undone when on 70 minutes, he misjudged the ball which resulted in Amond knocking in Danny O'Connor's goal-bound shot.
SHAMROCK ROVERS:Murphy; O'Brien, Maguire, Price, Flynn; Madden (S O'Connor, 60), Price, D O'Connor, Stapleton (Doyle, 38); Amond, Purcell (Leech, 50)
SLIGO ROVERS:Brush; Cretaro, Peers, Almeida, Butler; Cash (Creane, 76), O'Grady, Ventre, Doherty; Curran (McTiernan, 57), Boco.
Referee:R Winter (Dublin).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)