Rovers defenders rise to the occasion

Shamrock Rovers - 2 Cork City - 1 Two headed goals in the space of three first-half minutes saw Shamrock Rovers earn their first league win of the season against Cork City at Richmond Park last night.

Both of Shamrock Rovers' centre halves Terry Palmer and Jason McGuinness got in on the act, each scoring with powerful headers after 18 and 21 minutes respectively to set the hosts on their way.

To their credit, however, Cork were a much improved outfit after the restart and could easily have forced a draw, but their only reward was in the 54th minute when they pulled one back through Neale Fenn, who fired home a deflected shot from 10 yards after George O'Callaghan had headed down Danny Murphy's cross.

After that the visitors had several good chances to at least get something from the game, most notably when Rovers somehow kept out a Kevin Murray header.

The former Spurs striker Fenn also headed wide from a good position while six minutes from time John O'Flynn's shot through a crowded area drifted just wide.

As starts go, however, Rovers couldn't have asked for much better as they sought to banish from their minds last week's opening day of the season defeat to Shelbourne.

Yet while manager Liam Buckley will have been delighted with each goal his counterpart from Cork, Pat Dolan, will certainly have been asking questions about his side's defending.

Two set pieces - two goals. It was almost carbon-copy stuff.

The opener came after 18 minutes of play. Keith O'Halloran delivered the perfect free-kick into the danger zone and rising unmarked to head home was centre-half Palmer.

If Cork thought lightning couldn't strike twice they were to be mistaken as three minutes later Rovers doubled their lead. Trevor Molloy's shot had been blocked by Michael Devine with Liam Kelly seeing his effort deflected wide for a corner by Kevin Murray.

From the corner Keith Doyle's excellent delivery was met by Rovers' other central defender McGuinness, who like Palmer moments earlier powered his header past Devine.

And the visitors were almost undone by a third set-piece 10 minutes from the interval with McGuinness's header this time being saved well by Cork goalkeeper.

But despite the second-half pressure Fenn's strike was all Cork had to show for their efforts as Rovers held out for a morale- boosting victory following the departure of at least seven first-team squad players during the close season.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mooney; Gough, McGuinness, Palmer, Doyle; Robinson, O'Halloran, Tracey, Rutherford; Molloy, Kelly. Sub: O'Brien for Rutherford (90).

CORK CITY: Devine; Murphy, D Murray, K Murray, Horgan; Doyle, CT O'Brien, O'Callaghan, Kearney; Fenn, O'Flynn. Subs: Byrne for Horgan (half time); Sweeney for Kearney (half time); Behan for K Murray (87).

Referee: D McKeon (Dublin).