Red-hot Rovers hit six

Shamrock Rovers 6 UCD 0

In doing so, the Hoops have now registered 15 goals in their three league fixtures with the students this season and will take a huge degree of confidence from their performance ahead of their Europa League tie with Partizan Belgrade next Thursday.

There was little incident of note inside a scrappy opening ten minutes, but the game sprung to life in the 13th minute as Gary Twigg spurned two opportunities to break the deadlock within 60 seconds of each other.

His initial attempt was courtesy of an inswinging Dean Kelly cross which Twigg deflected towards goal only to be denied by the feet of UCD keeper Gerard Bannon from eight yards. As the students struggled to clear their lines effectively, the Scotsman played a neat one-two with Craig Sives and was unfortunate to see his powerful shot from 22 yards arrow narrowly wide.

A well-struck snap shot by Paul O’Connor from 25 yards which flew inches wide reminded the title holders of the students’ quality and the sense of unease among the home support was magnified when Twigg wasted another chance to open the scoring in the 29th minute. Gary O’Neill was the provider on this occasion with a clever pass to meet Twigg’s perfectly timed run, but the Hoops’ top scorer hesitated sufficiently to allow Michael Leahy enough time to make a well-judged tackle at the expense of a fruitless corner.

Leahy was slightly more fortunate seven minutes before the interval when poor communication with Barron saw the centre-half deflect Stephen Rice’s long ball a fraction wide of the post while under pressure from Twigg.

Lone-striker Graham Rusk warmed Thompson’s hands with a curling shot from 25 yards within 30 seconds of the resumption and the longer the half progressed, the visitors began to grow in belief but their challenge disintegrated in a disastrous ten minute spell midway through the half. Inevitably, it was Twigg who duly opened the scoring in the 62nd minute when racing in to flick Gary McCabe’s inviting cross to the net across Barron from close range after the substitute had been released by O’Neill.

Dan Murray and Billy Dennehy availed of defensive errors to increase the hosts’ advantage in the ensuing five minutes and the students’ woes were complete as O’Neill and substitute Ciaran Kilduff added to their tally before substitute Thomas Boyle powered a header into his own net to complete the misery for the beleaguered visitors.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Thompson; Sullivan, Sives, Murray, Stevens; Kelly (McCabe, 59), McCormack (Kilduff, 74), Rice, Dennehy (Moore, 70); O’Neill, Twigg.

UCD: Barron; Harding, Leahy, O’Connor, Nangle; Belhout, Creevy (Ledwith, 68), Corry (Doyle, 82), O’Connor, Marshall (Boyle, 68); Rusk.

Referee: Paul Tuite (Dublin).