Shamrock Rovers 2 St Patrick's Athletic 1 SHAMROCK ROVERS moved to the top of the Premier Division table thanks to a Thomas Stewart double at Tallaght Stadium last night. It was nervy finish for Rovers though as goalkeeper Alan Mannus saved a penalty in injury time from Ryan Guy after Billy Dennehy was sent off for handling the ball on the line.
Derek Doyle put St Patrick’s ahead five minutes into the second half but Stewart then struck twice to send Rovers to the summit.
Rovers had the better start of the two sides and were very creative inside the St Patrick’s half. One of their best opportunities to open the scoring came on 10 minutes thanks to Stewart but none of his team-mates could capitalise.
The former Linfield man whipped a neat ball across the face of goal that just needed a simple touch to send it home but there was no one there to finish.
During a spell of end to end action, Mannus saved well from Doyle shots on 28 and 30 minutes, either side of Dan Murray heading a Paddy Kavanagh corner wide for Rovers.
On 44 minutes Billy Dennehy made a superb run down the left and his cross was met firstly by Stewart before Gary Twigg smashed a shot off St Patrick’s Ian Bermingham. An exciting end to the half then saw St Patrick’s goalkeeper Gary Rogers save well from a James Chambers shot on 45 minutes.
Rovers started the second half in equally good fashion and Rogers made an excellent one-handed acrobatic save from Twigg on 48 minutes though the referee’s assistant had flagged for offside in any case.
Rovers always looked the more likely of the two sides to score but it was the visitors who took the lead on 50 minutes.
Lynch’s free kick from the left was cleared as far as Doyle who shot low past Mannus into the bottom left corner.
Rovers were level on 64 minutes when Stewart shot high into the top left of Rogers’ goal, following invaluable build-up work from Chambers and Kavanagh.
The Patrick’s Athletic defence were having to deal with a series of Rovers attacks and when a Chambers ball into the box caused havoc on 81 minutes, Stewart smashed in his second of the night to send Rovers to the top of the table.
SHAMROCK ROVERS:Mannus; Stevens, Sives, Murray, Price (Chambers, 42 mins); Kavanagh (Bayly, 90+3 mins), Rice, Turner, Dennehy; Twigg, Stewart.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC:Rogers; Lynch, Guthrie, Kenna, Bermingham (P Byrne, 88 mins); S Byrne (Cash, 72 mins), Mulcahy, Guy, McAllister; Faherty (North, 81 mins), Doyle.
Referee:A Kelly (Cork).
