North wind blows for the Hoops

SSE Airtricity Premier Division

An early goal by new signing Danny North meant it was Shamrock Rovers who started their league campaign with a precious win on a night when a hard-fought but scrappy Dublin derby against St Pat’s was repeatedly blown off course by a gale-force wind at Tallaght Stadium.

On paper, the occasion was not so much Hamlet without the Prince, as Hamlet without the Prince, the King, the Queen, Ophelia, Polonious, Horatio and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, an opening night production under the bright lights and in front of the cameras robbed, even before the curtain went up, of some of its leading players.