Shamrock Rovers 3 Carrick United 0: After the way in which Bohemians romped past Ringmahon Rangers on Thursday night it was easy to understand why Carrick United manager Gerry Walsh seemed so pleased with this performance by his side at Inchicore yesterday.

Though comfortably beaten by a premier division side superior in every way, the Waterford Junior League side left Dublin with their pride intact having produced a relentlessly brave and battling performance that kept the scale of the defeat well within the realms of respectability.

Like so many of the fellow non-league sides, United went into this weekend's second round of the Carlsberg FAI Cup with little more than a couple of weeks of light training and a solitary practice match under their belts. Walsh admitted that his players had spent a good deal of the game's second half "chasing shadows," but, he said, "we never gave up and I'm delighted with the lads for that".

Three goals down at the break, it would hardly have been much of a surprise if the amateurs had allowed things to slide into the realms of humiliation over the course of the second period. Instead, they showed an admirable determination to contain their much more polished opponents and while they were a little fortunate not to concede another couple of goals, a combination of poor finishing and a couple of good saves by goalkeeper Adrian Walsh deprived Rovers.

Carrick might have snatched one themselves at the other end when first Thomas Fitzgerald went close from 20 yards and then Jason McGuinness played Noel Mooney into trouble with a rash looking lob under pressure from United's Barry Murphy that the goalkeeper did well to push wide before colliding with the post.

Predictably, though, it was Liam Buckley's side that generated the vast majority of chances with Stephen Grant, Steven Gough and David Mooney all passing up decent opportunities to add to the home side's advantage.

By then, however, the game was already very much in the bag. Trevor Molloy had opened the scoring for the Dubliners back in the 17th minute when he met Keith Doyle's angled ball from the left with a glancing header that left Walsh with little chances of saving.

Within 11 minutes the 24 times cup winners were all but assured of their place in next week's third round draw after Gough fed Molloy down the right and Walsh fumbled badly under a harmless looking looping cross to allow Grant head home from less than a yard out.

Early on in the contest McGuinness had sent a close range shot crashing off the crossbar and two minutes before the break the woodwork came to the rescue of the visitors again twice in quick succession with a Gough header and Shane Robinson follow shot both coming off the bar's underside and bouncing on the line before the ball was eventually scrambled away.

By this point Rovers were finding it rather easy to push the ball around and look for openings in the United defence.

In the third minute of the first half injury time Pat Deans scored the goal of the game with a 30 yard shot that flew low past Walsh and into the bottom left corner and United must have been happy to see the inside of their dressing room.

Their skipper, Brian Barry, was there ahead of them having been carried off injured just over half an hour in and their manager said that their second half performance was in part inspired by the players' determination not to let the former Waterford United defender down.

"They went out there with the intention of showing what they could do in the second half," said Gerry Walsh. "They looked to take the ball down and play football and that's what they did. Of course fitness was a factor," he added, "you could see it from early on but I still think we've done the Waterford Junior League proud by coming here and giving Rovers a game."

Buckley conceded that the difference in fitness levels had given his side a distinct advantage. "I remember what it was like preparing for European games without having played any games," he said. "We saw that same sort of difference out there today but I can hardly complain, we've won the game well and come through a potentially tricky afternoon."

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mooney; Croly, McGuinness, Palmer, Doyle; Gough, O'Halloran (O'Brien, 63 mins), Deans; Robinson, Molloy (Mooney, 75 mins), Grant.

CARRICK UNITED: Walsh; J Walsh, O'Donnell, Barry (O'Shea, 32 mins), Lawrence; K Walsh (Redmond, 71 mins), A Ryan, Reade (M Ryan, 77 mins), Power; Murphy, Fitzgerald.

Referee: N Doyle (Dublin).