LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION: Sporting Fingal 1 Sligo Rovers 1:A WEEK ago they had good cause to feel they were robbed by poor refereeing at Dalymount Park, but last night Sporting Fingal were guilty of a giveaway back on home soil with poor defending gifting Sligo a point.

The game was a repeat of last season’s FAI Cup final which Fingal had won by the odd goal in three, but while the two sides had somehow managed to conjure up an exciting contest in poor conditions last November, they produced a lifeless one on a perfect night.

Sporting, to be fair, started well and looked set to dominate the contest early on as the likes of Alan Kirby, Stephen Paisley and Gary O’Neill went close to opening the scoring.

The quality of their passing and movement left the visitors chasing their tails at times but the breakthrough just wouldn’t come their way.

Towards the end of the first period they seemed to lose a good deal of their momentum with the visitors finally managing to take the game a little further up the pitch, but the Dubliners always looked the more likely to find the net first.

Paisley came closest to beating Richard Brush over the course of the first half but his header came back off the foot of the post a couple of minutes before the break.

After the break, though, it took just eight minutes before Conn Byrne fed O’Neill on the edge of the box and the lone striker turned Alan Keane inside out before picking his spot with a right-footed shot that flew beyond Brush to the bottom right-hand corner.

That should have been the beginning of the end for Rovers who hadn’t managed to pose any sort of meaningful threat to Brendan Clarke’s goal.

Entirely understandably, Liam Buckley’s men had looked a good deal more adventurous than against the league champions last week but they were set out in precisely the same way, with Shane McFaul providing protection the back four while O’Neill played up front alone.

It should have been a good basis for defending the lead and, perhaps, catching their opponents on the break as Paul Cook’s men stepped up their pursuit of an equaliser late on, but Fingal didn’t succeed in making any sort of chase of it with a defensive error allowing the visitors back into it within five minutes.

It was careless stuff with Paisley, generally solid over the course of the night, caught daydreaming while in possession on the edge of his area by Matthew Blinkhorn, who collected the ball as he trundled past before finishing neatly with a sidefooted shot to just inside the right-hand post.

It was even after that with Sligo causing the home side a few problems out wide, particularly down the right by Gary McCabe, while Sporting Fingal poked and prodded at a Sligo back four that didn’t always look entirely on top of things.

Late on, Ronan Finn forced a decent stop from Brush after which Paul Whelan did well to get the ball away under pressure from Kirby, while Keith Quinn was a little unfortunate not to grab a winner when his attempted cross took a major deflection, but the goalkeeper managed to keep the ball out with his feet after going the wrong way.

It was a disappointing end to the evening for the home support who would have been well pleased by a repeat of the late drama in Tallaght on cup final day.

SPORTING FINGAL:Clarke; Browne, Maher, Paisley, Quinn; McFaul; Byrne, Finn, Williams, Kirby Crowe, 77 mins); O'Neill.

SLIGO ROVERS:Brush; Whelan, Peers, Keane, Davoren; McCabe (Dillon, 71 mns), Ventre, Ryan, Doyle (Doninger, 92 mins); Blinkhorn, Amond.

Referee:N Doyle (Dublin).