Shamrock Rovers 2 Dundalk 0:THROUGHOUT SOME of their club's darkest moments down the years, there was always a hard core of Shamrock Rovers supporters who persisted in the belief theirs was the greatest club on the island of Ireland. There were times when that faith struck most outsiders as unfathomable but it played a part in the saving of the club.

And so, whatever about the absence of the Northern teams from Saturday’s Setanta Sports Cup in Tallaght, one bunch of loyalists got to savour the competition’s finale as, following their league success late last year, additional evidence was provided to support their passionately held viewpoint.

“It has knockers,” said Rovers manager Michael O’Neill of the competition after what was a comfortable defeat of a Dundalk side that had accounted for just about all of the big Northern outfits on the way to the final, “but it’s designed to try to bring the two leagues together and find a champion out of that. It’s our turn this year. It’s our first time in the competition and it was hard for a lot of people at the club seeing Drogheda, Cork, Bohemians and Pats all playing in it. It’s our chance to say we’ve taken part in the competition, we took it seriously from the start and now we’ve won it first time out as well.”

Certainly the scale of the celebrations amongst his players and their supporters at the final whistle indicated how much the win meant to everyone.

There was a sense too that, after Gary O’Neill ended his goal drought to put the Dubliners on course for a victory which Billy Dennehy wrapped up with an injury-time effort from distance, the team can push on from this in a domestic title defence.

“It’s excellent,” said Gary O’Neill admitting, that despite his overall contribution to the team, the lack of goals had been playing on his mind a little. “It’s a trophy I haven’t won before and I’m delighted. I said all week it’s a great chance to become All-Ireland champions. And winning silverware this early in the season can only inspire confidence for the rest of the season in the league.”

The gap between the champions and the chasing pack was underlined to some extent here, if not by the performance then certainly by the fact O’Neill could turn to Gary Twigg and Gary McCabe to liven up his attack during the second half when those who started had been finding it hard to make the breakthrough.

Dundalk battled hard and enjoyed some decent spells, most notably through the middle and later parts of the first half. They were handicapped, however, by the loss to injury of Stephen McDonnell and then Jason Byrne.

They brought some of their misfortune upon themselves. Far too often they were careless with possession during one of the periods they were on top. The closest they came before the break was when Mark Quigley forced a fine save from Alan Mannus with a free from just outside the area, although Daniel Kearns squandered a decent opportunity on the stroke of half-time, failing even to test the goalkeeper after being sent clear of the last defender.

Neither Kearns nor Ross Gaynor made quite the impact that would have been hoped for by the travelling support, while Quigley blew rather hot and cold. The striker never reached the extremes of temperature, though, achieved by young defender Mark Hector who showed flashes of brilliance early on before his inexperience got the better of him.

The 18-year-old was caught out for both goals and rode his luck on a handful of occasions with Colin Hawkins bailing him out.

Ultimately, though, Rovers were collectively too good with Ronan Finn and Conor McCormack in midfield their best performers and Dennehy their most consistent threat to Peter Cherrie’s goal.

Having passed up an opportunity or two to score himself, Finn did all the hard stuff for O’Neill’s opener after 65 minutes. Dennehy’s shot in the third minute of injury time had just a little too much on it for the goalkeeper, who did manage to push it on to the post but was then helpless to prevent it spinning across behind him and over the line.

The celebrations started pretty much there and then and O’Neill was proud of his side’s efforts when he spoke a few minutes later. Dundalk, though, had made a match of it and Dundalk manager Foster was still upbeat.

“Obviously we’re disappointed,” he said, “hugely disappointed but I’m immensely proud; what a wonderful group of players I’ve got. We took the champions to the wire. I know it’s finished 2-0 in the end with a goal in the 93rd minute but we’ve started the game with four teenagers and a lot of debutants in a cup final and what a fantastic learning curve for those players. They’re heartbroken, they’re in tears but we’ve come an awful long way and I’m immensely proud of the group.”

DUNDALK: Cherrie; Madden, Hawkins, Hector, Murphy; Bolger, McDonnell (Bennett, 9 mins); Kearns, Quigley, Gaynor (Breen, 85 mins); Byrne (Ward, 59 mins).

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; Sullivan, Murray, Oman, Stevens; Rice (Twigg, 64 mins), McCormack; Sheppard (McCabe, 79 mins), Finn, Dennehy; O’Neill.

Referee: A Kelly (Cork).