Shamrock Rovers resumed their campaign in dominant fashion when outclassing UCD by 2-0 in their SSE Airtricity League Premier Division encounter at Belfield last night.

UCD started brightly and should have broken the deadlock as early as the 4th minute but Hugh Douglas headed straight at Barry Murphy after connecting with Chris Mulhall’s free-kick.

The visitors dominated play from that early scare and Gary McCabe and Dean Kelly went close before Seán O’Connor headed over from McCabe’s inviting delivery.

With UCD retreating even further, it was of scant surprise as the Hoops opened the scoring in the 27th minute as Ronan Finn fired home confidently from eight yards following a fine move involving Eamon Zayed and Simon Madden.

Rovers could well have doubled their lead on two occasions through McCabe as the half progressed but they gained further reward for their dominance in the 45th minute as Kelly headed home from 10 yards after another fine cross by Madden.

In the 58th minute, Finn lacked the accuracy of his earlier strike, blazing high over the crossbar from the edge of the area after Madden had again escaped the attentions of Gareth Matthews.

The fluidity evident in their earlier play was lacking upon the restart, however, with few genuine chances created although Kelly and McCabe tested O’Donnell.

Substitute Ciarán Kilduff could have heaped further misery on his former club in the last 10 minutes but his two misses encapsulated a less than satisfactory conclusion to a disappointing second-half.