Shamrock Rovers 0 Shelbourne 2: Richie Baker proved the catalyst - making the first goal and scoring a sublime second - as Shelbourne earned their first win of the season to leave Shamrock Rovers' manager Roddy Collins eating his pre-match words.
Collins had tried to rile Shelbourne manager Pat Fenlon by saying that he had tinkered too much with his team pre-season.
It proved a bad night all round for Collins - whose team missed a penalty at 1-0 down - as the Rovers' boss finished up watching the last five minutes of the match from behind a fence behind his dugout after being sent off by referee Alan Kelly for arguing about a booking for his skipper Trevor Molloy.
Rovers could reasonably claim that the match turned on Steven Gough's missed penalty on 63 minutes. They had made a fair match of it in the second half as they chased Stuart Byrne's lead for Shelbourne.
They looked set to get their reward when Colin Hawkins handled a Pat McCourt corner. But right-back Gough, normally such a reliable deadball kicker, skied his spot kick high over the bar.
Baker then sealed Shelbourne's win with a terrific goal 15 minutes from time. Skipper Owen Heary's ball down the line was laid off by Glen Crowe for Baker, who struck the ball with the outside of his right foot from just inside the area against Russell Payne's right-hand post and into the corner of the net.
Shelbourne, seemingly galvanised by Collins' pre-match comments, tore into their opponents from the kick-off, forcing Payne into two early saves.
The Rovers goalkeeper initially made an awkward stop from David Crawley's 30-yard free-kick before doing better to parry away Alan Moore's drive when the Shelbourne winger all too easily got in behind the Rovers defence.
Having survived the early onslaught, Rovers soon had their own opportunity to threaten the goal at the other end. Mark Rutherford got the better of Heary down the left to whip in a cross to the near post. Dave Rogers was caught ball-watching as Lee Feeney stole a yard on him, only to flick his shot just wide.
It was end-to-end stuff and Shelbourne had some defending to do shortly afterwards with Heary getting his body in the way of Molloy's powerful right-foot drive.
There was a sharpness and hunger about Shelbourne, though, and they took the lead six minutes before half-time.
Baker, exceptional in the Setanta Cup game with Portadown midweek, continued where he left off in that game, showing his pace and determination to somehow get to the end line.
The pull-back was perfection as he found Stuart Byrne whose first-time shot from the edge of the area gave Payne no chance.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Payne; Gough (Cameron, 79 mins), Gavin, McGuinness, Doyle (McGovern, 76 mins); McCourt, Caffrey (O'Connor, 64 mins) McDonagh, Rutherford; Molloy, Feeney.
SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Hawkins, Rogers, Crawley; Baker, S. Byrne, Crawford (Hoolahan, 86 mins) Moore (Cahill, 64 mins); Crowe, J. Byrne (Harris, 72).
Referee: A Kelly (Cork).
