Rovers rescue a point when they might have claimed all three

LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION:Shamrock Rovers 1 Cork City1

WITH just one stand completed and empty space on the other three sides, maybe it’s not surprising that Shamrock Rovers are finding it a little difficult to make a fortress of their new home in Tallaght.

They’d won one and lost one there prior to last night’s visit of Cork City, who arrived looking for a fourth straight victory, and they can take some satisfaction from having rather comfortably prevented the visitors achieving that.

But manager Michael O’Neill and his men will hope to get more from home games they dominate like this during the months ahead.

Having been behind for a quarter of an hour, of course, the late equaliser was greeted like a winner, but there was still enough time for the home support to revise their hopes for the night upwards and urge their side on for the second goal that would have brought with it the extra two points.

City hung on with some determination through the closing stages, however, and for all the possession and territory his side surrendered, particularly during a terribly scrappy first half, Paul Doolin will doubtless have felt that the visitors had done enough to earn their point.

The local support may well have disagreed, but they might at least have been pleased by the fact that theirs was comfortably the better side over the course of that first half – the bulk of which passed with Rovers attempting to thread their way through towards goal while City took whatever opportunities that came their way to play the ball long towards their strikers.

The hosts were rewarded for their more creative efforts with the better part of the game’s early chances although, to be fair, there wasn’t a huge amount for either set of supporters to get carried away with at that stage.

About as close as the Dubliners actually came to opening the scoring, in fact, was a swerving Gary Twigg shot just short of 20 minutes in which Cork goalkeeper Dan Connor did well to block with an arm before Greg O’Halloran neatly headed the rebound back to him.

Twigg again looked tidy on the ball and menacing about the box, but the City back four repeatedly did enough to disrupt the Rovers approach play and neither the Scot nor Dessie Baker got the sort of time or space they would have liked inside the last third of the pitch.

From a quickly taken long free, Shane Robinson almost sent Seán O’Connor in at the far post, but Pat Sullivan did well to block the winger’s shot.

City also threatened from the odd set piece, most memorably when Denis Behan struck a fierce free from some 25 yards which Robert Duggan did quite well to parry.

Having made a brighter start to the second half, City did considerably better when a similar chance came their way 66 minutes in. Baker had been penalised for a nudge on Billy Dennehy and Colin Healy stepped up to fire low past the Rovers wall and beat Duggan at his near post.

The breakthrough had a predictable effect on the hosts who brought on Pádraig Amond, switched Baker to the left wing in place of O’Connor and immediately embarked on an energetic pursuit of an equaliser.

The substitute came close to getting it himself not long after arriving with a close-range header that came back off the crossbar.

As the sense of urgency grew, Darragh Maguire started to crop up in City’s box almost as much as his own, too, and the big defender proved a threat with a curling shot that flew just over the right hand angle the best of his efforts.

City had their moments too, but as the pace continued to hot up in midfield a Rovers equaliser did seem to be on the cards.

It came seven minutes from time as the southerners frantically defended another push by their hosts. The ball was ricocheting one way then another on the edge of the City box and half of the local players had stopped to appeal for hand ball when it fell to the feet of Twigg, who hit a first-time left-foot shot that flew through the crowd and into the bottom right corner.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Duggan; Treacy, Maguire, Webb, Cahill; Robinson, Rice, Cameron (Purcell, 79 mins), O’Connor (Amond, 67 mins); Baker, Twigg.

CORK CITY: Connor; Sullivan, O’Halloran, Murray, Murphy; O’Neill (Horgan, 26 mins), Gamble, Healy, Dennehy; Behan, Silgailis (Kiely, 86 mins).

Referee: R Winter (Dublin)