Shamrock Rovers 3 UCD 1:IT TOOK a little longer than some of their supporters had expected but, after taking one point from their previous two games, Michael O'Neill's Shamrock Rovers cranked their title defence back up through the gears here last night. Second-half goals by Karl Sheppard and Ronan Finn calmed the nerves of those in the stands where frustration had been growing at the inability of the hosts to turn superiority into a favourable scoreline.
Briefly, Robbie Benson restored a bit of edge to things with a cracking left-footed finish from the edge of the area seven minutes from time. But UCD had barely finished exhorting each other to push on for the equaliser when Billy Dennehy slipped clear and, despite Michael Leahy’s desperate attempt to keep the ball out, restored Rovers’ two-goal lead.
Given the scoreline, it would be easy to mark it down as a comfortable win and there could have been a couple more goals for the champions on the night. On the couple of occasions they were tested, though, most notably by Dean Marshall and Robbie Creevy early in the second period, the Rovers’ defence looked less than inspiring, while up front the quality of their finishing fell far short of the high standard generally set by the injured Gary Twigg, at least until the closing stages.
They had started brightly with O’Neill’s decision to play two wingers looking like a good call. Both caused UCD problems in the opening 15 minutes and with Finn getting forward in support of the side’s strikers to good effect, the locals looked set to dominate.
Their confidence bolstered perhaps by the character they’d shown to come from behind for a draw last week in Inchicore, Martin Russell’s side gradually started to come back into things. Playing three in central midfield started to give them an edge there and when worked the ball out wide they were able to create chances, especially when coming in from the left where Pat Sullivan was left looking flat-footed more than once.
The game started to develop into a slightly end-to-end affair marred only by the poor quality of the finishing. UCD passed the ball well for spells although they made too many mistakes in dangerous positions.
Twigg’s absence looked a particular handicap for the hosts. Neither Karl Sheppard nor Gary O’Neill had a league goal to their name this season prior to the start, and while confidence was hardly a factor for the 20-year-old given he’d got one in each leg of the Setanta Cup semi-final against Sligo, the pair looked hesitant, repeatedly allowing defenders to get in last-ditch blocks around the area, for the bulk of the game.
Sheppard did hit the foot of the post with a header after a short corner and O’Neill should have blasted home from 10 yards 35 minutes in after some good work by Dennehy but then UCD should have been in front themselves in the opening stages of the second period when Marshall then Creevy missed the target by inches.
In the end, though, they allowed their opponents too many chances and the breakthrough by Sheppard was a fine finish after a decent cross by Enda Stevens.
Within two minutes Finn made it two, having been sent racing clear by O’Neill and a comeback by Russell’s men suddenly seemed a somewhat remote prospect.
They stuck at it, though, and deserved their goal when it came. The problem was that Rovers, on the balance of things, deserved theirs 30 seconds later too.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; Sullivan, Murray, Oman, Stevens; Kavanagh (Kilduff, 53 mins), Finn (Corcoran, 85 mins), McCormack (Rice, 53 mins), Dennehy; Sheppard, O’Neill.
UCD: Barron; O’Conor, Leahy, O’Connor, Nangle; Marshall (Benson, 73 mins), Ledwidth (Belhout, 73 mins), Creevy, Corry (Kavanagh, 84 mins) Meenan; Rusk.
Referee: N Doyle (Dublin).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)