Shamrock Rovers 5 Glentoran 1

Stephen McPhail duly announced his arrival at Tallaght Stadium with a wonderful goal on his debut to delight the Shamrock Rovers faithful and help to all but book the holders’ passage in the semi-finals.

Rovers’ manager Trevor Croly opted to leave marquee signing McPhail on the bench from the start as he kept faith with the starting 11 which beat Drogheda United.

But once Marty Waters restored Rovers’ lead on 61 minutes, McPhail was sprung from the bench four minutes later. Nine minutes after that he hit an audacious free-kick in off the underside of the crossbar.

Gary McCabe then blasted to the roof of the net at the far post from Ciaran Kilduff’s cross on 79 minutes for their fourth.

Right-back Simon Madden added the gloss three minutes into stoppage time when shooting low to the net.