Shamrock Rovers 3 Shebourne 0: An off-colour night for Shelbourne. There were mitigating factors, of course, but they simply were nowhere near their normal dominant selves. The defeat gives the chasing pack some hope, writes Gavin Cummiskey at Richmond Park
Those mitigating factors then. Two first-half goals from free-kicks and being reduced to 10 men early in the second half made it close to impossible for them to get something out of this. Newly confident Shamrock Rovers were never going to pass up a chance of this magnitude.
Such was the meekness of both sides in the opening 20 minutes it was hard to credit this was a Dublin derby, an encounter usually noted for extra bite in the tackles.
However, by the interval normal service had been resumed as referee Anthony Buttimer brandished five yellow cards and a 15-man gathering swapped handbags after some over-zealous tackling. The most deserved booking went to Ollie Cahill, for chopping down Trevor Molloy.
Also, in that opening half Rovers proved their recent rich vein of form was genuine as they rocked the best team in the league with two tasty goals.
The first came from the most unlikely source: left-back Stephen Gough, with his right foot, caught out Steve Williams for being a fraction too far from home with a well executed free-kick from 25 yards.
Then 10 minutes before the break Keith O'Halloran hit a similar effort to the same top corner, albeit from a far more difficult angle.
The Rovers fans were so delirious they even forgot to abuse former player Glen Fitzpatrick for a time. The young striker was hounded all evening but he coped well under the added pressure.
Shelbourne came out after the break with added intent, Wesley Hoolahan attempting to put Fitzpatrick through on goal after a matter of seconds but the pace of the ball was too much. David Mooney was forced into three further stops in the next six minutes with a Dave Rogers effort almost finding the net.
That was last meaningful contribution of Rogers's evening as he was sent off on 55 minutes for a second yellow card after fouling Jason McGuinness. With that, went any real chance of a revival.
They persevered nevertheless. Jamie Harris went up front, while Fitzpatrick made way for Ger McCarthy, who almost scored with his first touch after a delicate flick-on from Jason Byrne but the ball trickled wide.
The Rovers rearguard soaked it all up and in injury time Stephen Grant headed a third goal.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mooney; Croly, McGuinness, Palmer, Gough; O'Brien, O'Halloran (Tracey, 69 mins), Caffrey; Robinson, Molloy (Kelly, 92 mins), Grant.
SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Harris, Doherty, Rogers; Hoolahan, Crawford (Morgan, 51 mins), S Byrne, Cahill; Fitzpatrick (McCarthy, 69 mins), J Byrne.
Referee: A Buttimer (Cork).
