Stewart gives improving Rovers reason to believe

St Patrick's Ath 1 Shamrock Rovers 2:HAD IT a been really good night for Pete Mahon's St Patrick's Athletic side in Inchicore last night they might have gone six points clear at the top.

As it turned out it was a pretty bad one with southside rivals Shamrock Rovers running out fairly comfortable winners thanks to two goals from Thomas Stewart while the win for Dundalk over Drogheda earned the Oriel Park outfit a share of first place.

There was little enough to choose between the form of these two sides ahead of the game and only a single goal separating them at the end of it after Alex Williams’s fine 90th minute goal had injected a lot of life into stoppage time of a game that had previously looked fairly dead.

The strike added an edge to the closing exchanges with Rovers having to defend a little desperately for a few moments before the final whistle but in the end it can’t even have brought any real consolation to the locals.

At least in part to facilitate a shift in tactics that worked well for him, Rovers boss Michael O’Neill made three changes to the side that drew on Monday with Sligo, with Gary Twigg, Ollie Cahill and the injured Chris Turner making way for Stephen Rice, Robert Bayly and Paddy Kavanagh.

Rather more predictably the hosts reverted to the side that beat Sligo last week.

But they quickly found that last night’s Rovers presented considerably more of a challenge with the visitors even able to squander a spot kick – James Chambers fired off the foot of the post after Damien Lynch had shoved Kavanagh from behind – on the way to a deserved victory.

The home side’s defence has been the rock on which the team’s early season run has been built but here the back four looked rather out-of-sorts with Shane Guthrie and Conor Kenna badly at fault for the first goal.

Stewart put the chance away well but only after opting to twice cut back inside the centre halves, neither of whom managed to deliver a telling challenge.

That came 36 minutes in and they went two-up just short off the hour mark with Bayly again setting up Stewart who this time raced clear as a straight line of defenders stood and watched with their arms in the air.

But the flag stayed down and the former Derry City striker finished well, side-footing past Gary Rogers to the bottom far corner.

Stewart should have completed his hat-trick not long after when Guthrie lost him 35 yards out only to be let off the hook by the northerner’s poor finish, his shot this time bobbled tamely to the feet of the goalkeeper.

It only came close to mattering very late on, however, for the locals had mustered little by way of a threat themselves before then.

Dave Mulcahy, Ryan Guy, Lynch and David McAllister all managed half-decent shots on goal over the course of the game but not one required Rovers goalkeeper Alan Mannus to make a save of note.

In a sense, that didn’t change with the arrival of Williams whose curling free to the top left corner flew beyond the goalkeeper who was still prostrate as the ball was retrieved from the back of the net by an opponent.

Quite simply, though, it was too little too late and so Rovers edge a little closer to the top and, most remarkable given all the talk of a few weeks ago, four points clear of great rivals Bohemians who surprisingly were held to a draw.

ST PATRICK’S ATH: Rogers; Pender, Guthrie, Kenna, Lynch; McAllister, Mulcahy, S Byrne (Cash, 64 mins), Guy (Doyle, 81 mins); P Byrne (Williams, 71 mins), Faherty.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; Flynn, Murray, Price, Murphy; Bayly, Rice; Kavanagh (Twigg, 69 mins), Chambers, Dennehy (Cahill, 77 mins); Stewart (Baker, 85 mins).

Referee: D McKeon (Dublin)