Shamrock Rovers 0...St Patrick's Athletic 1: To judge by the past few days Dublin derbies are not to the liking of this Shamrock Rovers side that the club's new manager, Liam Buckley, says is gradually approaching the point where it needs to be, writes Emmet Malone at Tolka Park.

Last night, at least, there were signs that they were prepared to dig deep and fight to take something out of the game. Once again, though, they found that a show of spirit when behind is not necessarily enough when faced with more credible title contenders from the capital.

Rovers, coming into the game off the back of a good cup win over Dundalk and Friday's disappointing league defeat by Bohemians, reverted to playing with three up front but the switch did little to threaten Seamus Kelly's goal.

On a couple of occasions their opponents gifted them half chances with some uncertain passes around the back.

Just before half-time Noel Hunt sent a close range strike crashing off the bar but otherwise there was little of consequence for the former UCD goalkeeper to deal with in the opening half of a game that was fast but generally infuriating.

At the other end Robbie Horgan wasn't exactly swamped by his workload either but Pat Dolan's side can always be depended upon to spring something from set pieces and when Martin Russell floated in a free from well out on the left a slight flick on set Tony Bird up nicely to head home from five yards.

On the balance of play the visitors just about deserved their lead for they had more about them going forward and their passing and movement off the ball caused the Rovers defence considerable problems.

Pat Scully, though, looked much better able to cope with Charles Mbabazi and Ger McCarthy than he had with Paul Keegan and Glen Crowe on Friday night while alongside him Stephen McGuinness imposed himself on the proceedings with characteristic bluntness within the first minute when he was booked for a hard and heavy challenge.

Once behind the pair again looked vulnerable to being caught on the break and with just short of an hour played they were badly exposed when a Marc Kenny error in midfield presented Russell with the chance to send Mbabazi clear.

The Ugandan should have made it 2-0 but managed instead to delay his shot so long that what started out as a one on one became a one on three at which point he tried to turn too many and Horgan pounced on the loose ball.

It might well have proven a costly slip up for the home side were by then finally beginning to exert some pressure up front themselves despite Tony Grant's greatly reduced influence from well out on the right of the attack.

With Kenny struggling again, though, and neither of his fellow midfielders creating much at all in an area largely dominated by Paul Osam the chances created seemed to materialise almost out of nothing early in the second half when both Hunt and McGuinness went close to getting an equaliser.

Rovers did better as the game wore on with players in every area of the team finally starting to show some real hunger and stepping up the pace sufficiently to ensure that the threat from St Patrick's all but evaporated.

For all the pressure they were subjected to during the closing minutes, though, Dolan's side hung on to take the points, another of the sort of gritty wins that marked them out as the country's best side during last season's ill- fated campaign.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Horgan; O'Keeffe (Deans, half-time), Scully, McGuinness, Doyle; Colwell, Kenny, Byrne (Costello, 78 mins); T Grant, Francis (S Grant, 78 mins) Hunt.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Kelly; Croly, Foley, Maguire, Burke; Donnelly, Russell (Kelly, 83 mins), Osam; McCarthy, Mbabazi (Holt, 83 mins), Bird.

Referee: D McKeon (Dublin).

• Liam Dunne will miss promotion favourites Dundalk's opening match of the new First Division season after receiving a one- match ban. Midfielder Dunne was sent off in the recent First Division Cup defeat to Dublin City. The suspension starts from August 14th.