Rovers win home and away

Shelbourne...0 Shamrock Rovers...1Their Cup dream may have evaporated here last week but Liam Buckley's Shamrock Rovers side picked up where they had left off in the league last night, extending their unbeaten run in the championship and putting their Tolka Park landlords to the sword, thanks to a 60th-minute Shane Robinson goal.

Shelbourne have been no slouches themselves of late and must have gone into this game believing it marked an opportunity to make up a little more ground on Bohemians.

In the end, though, their first defeat in six games combined with a draw for their main rivals down at Turner's Cross ensured that Pat Fenlon's men actually slipped back to nine points off the championship pace.

Buckley made two changes to the side beaten by Derry but the pattern of the game remained much the same for the "visitors", with their defence having to work hard to contain opponents who were clearly having the better of things through the centre of midfield.

With just three minutes played Jason Colwell's outstretched boot prevented Davy Byrne from turning the ball home from a couple of yards and through the rest of the opening half the Dubliner comfortably outperformed Maltese international Luke Dimech alongside him.

There were still plenty of opportunities for Byrne and Jim Crawford to get forward, which, combined with Wesley Houlihan's contribution from the wing, ensured Stephen Geoghegan and Mark Roberts received plenty of ball and support around the Rovers area.

When it counted, however, Shelbourne struggled to capitalise on the opportunities that came their way. Geoghegan was a repeat offender, doing well more than once to slip clear into space as his team broke forward but then failing to provide the required finish or, as he did four minutes before the break, nudging the ball just far enough ahead of him so that Tony O'Dowd was able to sprint forward and save at his feet.

His worst moment of the night came early in the second half when Houlihan, by some distance the best performer of the four wingers in action, found him perfectly with a cross from the left, and he somehow headed over the bar. For all their team's dominance the bulk of the "home" support must have suspected what was to come next.

Sure enough, Rovers went ahead, Robinson poking home after Pat Scully had headed Greg Costello's long cross from the right straight into the middle of a crowded six yard box. It must have come as a cruel blow to a defence that had been doing the bulk of its night's work much further upfield, where it had been coping reasonably well.

Rovers had had a couple of half chances prior to the goal, the best of them coming in the dying minutes of the first half when Tony Grant did well, but not quite well enough, to get his head to a looping Robinson cross from the left.

So, with half an hour remaining in which to salvage something, Fenlon must have felt his team were still very much in the hunt. Rovers, though, had other ideas and the introduction of Alex Nesovic for Geoghegan did little to shake the growing control that Scully and Palmer were exerting on things.

Just as Rovers had thrown bodies forward in the Cup final, though, so Shelbourne pushed desperately on during the closing minutes in the hope of at least matching the point picked up by Bohemians in Cork.

Nesovic might have nicked an equaliser but didn't quite make the required contact with Houlihan's cross, while a few moments later O'Dowd easily blocked a Davy Byrne shot that, like the home side's performance generally, simply lacked the punch required.

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Doherty (R Baker, 85 mins), S Byrne, Crawley; Houlihan, Crawford, D Byrne, Cahill; Roberts, Geoghegan (Nesovic, 68 mins).

SHAMROCK ROVERS: O'Dowd; Costello, Scully, Palmer, Deans; Robinson (Gough, 91 mins), Colwell, Dimech, Keddy; T Grant, Hunt (Tracey, 88 mins).

Referee: H Byrne (Dublin)