UCD 3 Shamrock Rovers 2:HAVING MADE the short trip to Belfield in the hope of taking another significant step towards the championship, Shamrock Rovers found their hosts impressively reluctant to settle for being extras in the title race last night.

Martin Russell’s men, after all, still had the prospect of a relegation play-off to concern themselves with prior to this although, having stolen centre stage for the evening courtesy of Keith Ward’s late winner, Galway United must have seemed rather less of a threat by the night’s end.

Inevitably, given that he had sent two Rovers players off during the last few minutes, a good portion of the sizeable travelling support opted to lay the blame for their defeat at the door of referee Richie Winter but Michael O’Neill’s side contributed a great deal to their own downfall too with poor finishing, sloppy defending and, late on, flashes of ill-discipline all helping UCD’s cause.

The home side though, deserved immense credit for the part they played in what was an enthralling game. Behind after 20 minutes to a soft but well-taken goal by Gary Twigg, they might easily have dropped their heads and allowed the would-be champions to coast their way towards Tuesday night’s showdown with arch-rivals Bohemians.

Instead, they battled their way back to draw level through Ciaran Kilduff with Winter helping them on their way when he played a good advantage after a foul on Paul Corry whose shot ran to the feet of the striker after being blocked down just inside the area.

With Galway breathing down their necks the stakes were pretty high for the students but there was rarely any evidence of nerves.

Sometimes, in fact, Russell’s young side seemed to persist with their traditional passing game a little too doggedly with members of the back four, more than once, looking to play their way out from the back while under severe pressure from some of the league’s more adept opportunists.

Gradually, though, it started to become clear that Rovers were having an off night, an impression firmly underlined during the early stages of the second half when, with the sides still tied on a goal apiece, Twigg and Thomas Stewart both passed up clear-cut chances to put their side back in the driving seat.

Twigg, at least, forced a brave save from Billy Brennan who raced off his line and dived at the feet of the Scot in order to block his shot but Stewart, so often a key figure in big wins for the league leaders this season, fluffed the follow-up before squandering a much better chance from 10 yards out a few minutes later.

It was already entertaining stuff but from the point, almost midway through the second half, when Brian Shortall forced the ball home from close range after Rovers had failed to deal with Ward’s corner from the left, the drama began to build in earnest.

O’Neill sought to shake things up by bringing on Billy Dennehy and Robert Bayly and the pressure exerted during the spell that followed yielded a penalty when Winter punished Evan McMillan for a handball that the player insisted he couldn’t have avoided after falling inside the area.

At that stage a winner for Rovers seemed the most likely finale but it was actually the hosts who ended up showing the greater hunger to grab the extra points and had they been a little cooler when the chance to do so came their way, they might have been back in front quite quickly.

But their moment came in the dying minutes after Bayly had been shown a second yellow for protesting Winter’s decision to give UCD a free on the edge of the area, Ward stepped up to lift it over the wall and then into the bottom left corner quite superbly.

Rovers’ night got worse when Danny Murphy was shown a virtually indisputable second yellow for a challenge on Kilduff as the striker threatened to race clear deep into injury time. The fans, of course, disputed it anyway, although news of the result at Dalymount did eventually lower their distress levels somewhat.

UCD: Brennan; O'Connor, E McMillan, Leahy, Russell (Shortall, half-time); Mulhall (Ward, 54 mins), Corry, Bolger, Moore (Creevy, half-time); Kilduff, D McMillan, Kilduff.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; Murphy, Sives, Price, Stevens; Kavanagh (Dennehy, 64 mins), Turner, Bradley (Bayly, 67 mins), Stewart; Fenn (Rice, 81 mins); Twigg.

Referee: R Winter(Dublin).