It was a game they must have expected to win given the form of their visitors over the past few months, but the goal-scoring touch deserted Damien Richardson's side at Richmond Park last night where a surprisingly even game ended with Shamrock Rovers dropping two points to at least two of their closest rivals.

Arriving in Inchicore to face the league leaders without an away win all season and with just one victory anywhere in their last 12 games can hardly have inspired much confidence in the Longford camp. But throughout the opening stages Stephen Kenny's side looked anything but daunted in what was, admittedly, a poor and generally scrappy encounter.

For a good chunk of the first half neither side seemed like settling into any sort of rhythm, so it wasn't much of a surprise that scoring chances were as disappointingly thin on the ground as the entertainment.

While Rovers came closer to producing some memorable football, though, it was last year's cup finalists who had the better chances to score, with Vinnie Perth, Keith O'Connor and Eric Lavine all going close when they should really have scored.

Lavine, at least, forced a decent save out of Tony O'Dowd after Alan Kirby's neatly chipped ball had provided him with the opportunity to hold off Pat Scully and shoot from the edge of the area.

That was more than O'Connor managed with a misdirected header from a couple of yards out, a terrible disappointment given the quality of the cross, while Vinnie Perth would surely have scored had he managed to make contact with Kirby's ball from the right after more good work by the Waterford midfielder on the half hour.

With Marc Kenny out of the game with what looked like a hamstring problem from early on, and Billy Woods looking a little less sharp than in recent weeks, Sean Prunty was the star turn out on the flanks. In the absence of any real service from wide positions, the Rovers strikeforce struggled to get behind the Longford defence.

Sean Francis, switched to the right flank after Tony Grant replaced Kenny, had the first opportunity to rectify the situation when the best passing move of the game up until then left him with time and space in which to weigh up his options. With three team-mates to aim at, though, the striker's cross flew far too close to Stephen O'Brien's goal and in the end the visitors' goalkeeper did well enough to push it behind for a corner.

With little else working for them early on, there was the occasional attempt to simply hoist the ball in behind the Longford back four from inside the Rovers half, but three minutes into the second period Woods showed what could be achieved with a more delicate approach, his fine curling cross from the left reaching Tony Grant on the edge of the six-yard box after which only the outstanding reactions of O'Brien kept the scores level.

It was as close as the Dubliners were to scoring until five minutes from time, when Longford's persistent failure to clear the ball from their area eventually allowed Shane Robinson to feed Francis whose first time shot with the outside of his boot skimmed the top of crossbar.

This time O'Brien looked rather relieved, but on the Rovers bench there was dismay that Longford were about to take home a point that, worst of all, they clearly deserved.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: O'Dowd; Deans, Scully, Palmer, Byrne; Kenny (T Grant, 17 mins (Cousins, 82 mins), Tracey, Robinson, Woods; Francis (Kavanagh, 86 mins), S Grant.

LONGFORD TOWN: O'Brien; S Byrne, Smith, McNally, W Byrne; Kirby, V Perth, Reynolds; O'Connor, Lavine (Coleman, 86 mins).

Referee: A Kelly (Cork).