If anybody needed to be convinced of the importance of this game to the two clubs then all they had to do was observe the way they greeted the final whistle. As the league champions made their way towards the dressing rooms looking utterly dejected, their hosts took some time out to celebrate.

As the Rovers players continued their celebrations under the main stand and their supporters applauded a victory that had only been clinched in the closing minutes, it would have easy to forget that for Rovers the season all but ended in Cork on Wednesday.

As the news of Liam Coyle's goal at the Brandywell circulated afterwards Damien Richardson probably couldn't help but believe the improbable. But he has said before that this Rovers team is not good enough to win the title and even coming out on top of one of the best league games we are likely to see this season can hardly have been enough to change his opinion.

Rovers were, what's more, lucky to win. In his post match comments Pat Dolan declared himself happy with the progress his team are making. A couple of "unacceptable" defensive errors and some poor finishing aside he said "there was a lot to be positive about out there today". To lose a game they had so many chances to win, though, simply served to underline the difficulties he and his club are experiencing just now.

Having fallen behind to a Sean Francis strike midway through the first period they did at least look likely to get a draw out of the game thanks to a Gino Brazil own-goal 20 minutes into the second. But by then they had hit the woodwork three times and forced Tony O'Dowd into making a couple of decent stops.

It was far from one sided stuff with Rovers enjoying a chance or two at the other end and Trevor Wood holding his own in the goal-keeping stakes but realistically St Patrick's had enough of an edge to win the game.

"It's disappointing," Dolan said, "but another day I don't think it would have been unusual for us to have scored four or five in a game like that."

While the visiting side's play up front was costly, so too were the defensive errors, primarily those of Donal Broughan, which led to Francis and then, with around 90 seconds remaining, Billy Woods scoring.

The winner must have been particularly galling for the St Patrick's bench for, with the game growing ever more open as the end moved closer they looked, if anybody was going to, nick a winner.

The home side's problems were a mixed bag. Terry Palmer had limped off early with a hamstring problem weakening a central defence that, in his absence yesterday, could have done with a bit more height. And out wide the full-backs were experiencing their customary difficulty handling opponents with a bit of zip about them.

Either weakness might have cost them a goal in the closing minutes with first Colin Hawkins somehow missing the target with a close range header off a Martin Russell corner and then Marcus Hallows rounding O'Dowd only to have his shot from five or six yards blocked by the desperately outstretched leg of Matt Britton.

Had one of the chances been converted it would have been a more fitting end to what was such an open, entertaining, contest but nobody in the Rovers camp looked like they cared too much about aesthetics when Tommy Dunne's long angled ball down the left went uncleared.

Broughan should have got it away but didn't and after a couple of Rovers' players had helped it on, Woods sent a looping header over the stranded Wood.

"We've beaten Pat's at their own game," beamed Richardson afterwards. "For a few years now that's been their speciality, bouncing back to win matches in the dying seconds and for us to do it to them is another sign of the progress we're making around here."

He might have been happier, however, to witness this latest manifestation of his team's improvement in Turner's Cross the other day for it will take a sustained run of wins if Rovers are to take anything more tangible than heart from the current campaign.

Shamrock Rovers: O'Dowd; Brazil, Purdy, Palmer, Dunne; Byrne, Kenny, Colwell, Woods; Francis, Lawlor. Subs: Britton for Palmer (11 mins), Cousins and Robinson for Colwell and Byrne (80 mins).

St Patrick's: Wood; Prederville, Broughan, S McGuinness, Doyle; Croly, Hawkins, Russell, Gormley; Molloy, Hallows. Subs: Devereux and Kelly for Croly and Doyle (92 mins).

Referee: P McKeon (Dublin).