Late brace gets Rovers off to winning start

Shamrock Rovers 2 Dundalk 1

Shamrock Rovers were a goal down before Jamie Duffy capitalised on a mix -up in the visitors’ defence to side-foot the ball past Chris Bennion with just 15 minutes of this tense encounter remaining.

With 24 Premier Division titles and 33 FAI Cup wins between them, this was the game that many thought would never take place in the First Division.

But that’s the sad reality of the demise which both Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk have experienced in recent years.

And Shamrock Rovers had been given a wake-up call in the early stages of this encounter, with Dundalk taking a deserved lead after just 15 minutes with a goal of Premier Division quality from Peter Hynes.

But Pat Scully’s side looked a completely different outfit after the interval.

And while a draw looked likely when Jamie Duffy side-footed home the equaliser with quarter of an hour left, Shamrock Rovers earned an unlikely three points courtesy of an injury-time strike from substitute Willie Doyle.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Murphy, Cassidy, Clarke, Price, Long, Maher, Duffy, Cooney, D O’Connor (C O’Connor 65), Shields, Purcell (Doyle 82).

DUNDALK: Bennion, Hudson, McCauley (Hoey 78), Kelly, Griffin, Marney, Flanagan, Dunne, Skelly (Duffy 61), Hughes, Hynes (Vaughan 74).

Referee: Richie Winter (Dublin).