Cork City - 1 Shamrock Rovers - 0: Cork City needed a second-half penalty to see off the challenge of a dogged Shamrock Rovers in a poor contest at Turner's Cross last night.

Rovers came in search of a point in an effort to improve their league position and they succeeded in denying Cork for 61 minutes.

The trend of the first hour was dictated by Rovers, and their five-man midfield, as they placed the emphasis on confronting Cork with a heavily defensive formation.

The home side survived a scare when goalkeeper Michael Devine raced outside his penalty area and then saw a long clearance from Stephen Grant bounce over his head. Fortunately for Cork Alan Bennett was in a covering position to knock the ball clear of Trevor Molloy.

The game turned Cork's way on a penalty incident in the 61st minute. A long clearance from Danny Murphy was chested into Kevin Doyle's path by John O'Flynn and, as the Cork striker drove into the penalty area, he was tripped by Keith Doyle.

O'Flynn hit the penalty against an upright and Kevin Doyle reacted sharply to steer the rebound home with his instep.

The goal fired Cork to renewed efforts and they out-played Rovers in the closing half-hour of the match.

Liam Kearney had a shot from 18 yards that narrowly cleared the crossbar before Kevin Doyle beat the Rovers' defence again only to see his shot rebound off an upright in the 74th minute.

CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; Woods, CT O'Brien (O'Callaghan 18), Gamble, Kearney; Doyle, O'Flynn.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Payne; Gough, Palmer, Doyle, Malone; Robinson (Cousins 87), O'Brien, Caffrey (Mooney 65), Rutherford, Grant (O'Halloran 55); Molloy.

Referee: J Feighery (Dublin).