Shelbourne make life tougher on Rovers

THE arrival of the money men from the Premier Group seems to have provided Shamrock Rovers with as bright a future as they have, bad for some years but on the pitch there remains the little matter of their present to be sorted out.

Before the game manager Alan O'Neill was upbeat about his side's chances of challenging for this year's league title but on the strength of this performance the next championship for the Hoops, just like the stadium in Tallaght, is very much at the drawing board stage.

The one significant improvement the new management team made over the summer seemed to be the recruitment of the talented Pat Fenlon. But the former Chelsea player looked to be dragged down by the mediocrity about him last night and started throwing himself about, for which he was booked.

Shelbourne, in contrast, were full of ideas with the man regarded by many to be the league's most talented player now, Tony Sheridan, productive in the centre of the field.

Stephen Geoghegan and Mark Rutherford gave the Rovers defence a night to forget with a display of tireless running. Brian Flood also played his part in fine first-half team performance combining a couple of testing passes into corners with a determination to close down the space vacated by the meandering Sheridan.

From early on it was Rovers who were looking second best and, but for the rather robust contributions of midfielder John Toal to his team's resistance, they might have found themselves behind earlier. Alan O'Neill saved well from Stephen Geoghegan early on while Flood was just off the mark before the manager intervened again, this time to prevent Sheridan from getting off the mark.

After 36 minutes the home side's resistance finally crumbled and, predictably enough, it was Sheridan who started the move. Geoghegan, however, failed to control his pass and decided to push the ball back inside to the mid- fielder on the edge of the area. Amazingly the five opponents between him and the goal were content to allow him to pick his spot

Three minutes after the break the margin was doubled when O'Neill brought Rutherford down inside the box and could count himself lucky that his only punishment was seeing Greg Costello's spot kick fly high into the corner. For a while it seemed that the night might turn, into one of humiliation for Rovers at their new temporary home.

It wasn't to be, however, and after Shelbourne had gone close another couple of times and then eased up, Rovers finally began to "get into a dying game.

Rod De Khors hurried his best chance of the closing stages when there was time to do better but at the end the scoreline was a fair reflection of a game which, if O'Neill is in a position to act on, might prompt him to steal the impressive and on loan centre half Pat Scully from under Damien Richardson's nose.