Shamrock Rovers takes spoils from St. Patrick's win

With Friday’s Dublin Derby taking place on the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the patron saint of Ireland’s honours went to Shamrock Rovers over St. Patrick’s Athletic.

Having failed to beat the Saints last season, both the Hoops Head Coach and their Captain were happy with Rovers’ 1-0 home win, their first league victory over St. Pat’s in Tallaght since March 2015.

“It is a big win for us,” said Bradley speaking to Shamrock Rovers TV after the game. “It was a Dublin Derby. Sometimes we get wrapped up in the Bohs one but the Pat’s one is just as big for us.

“Last year we didn’t perform to our levels against them and we knew that and we wanted to put that right tonight and I think we did.”

For Rovers captain Ronan Finn, it put last year’s poor results against the Saints firmly in the past. “We owed them,” said Finn who made his 150^th league appearance for Rovers on Friday.

“They beat us twice last year and we drew with them once. That is a really bad return from our point of view.”

It was a very tight affair in Tallaght with only Kevin Toner’s 77^th minute own goal separating the sides but Stephen Bradley certainly felt his team were worthy of the win as they overcame a Saints side who he felt came to stifle Rovers.

“It was frustrating at times as they sat in and tried to just keep it tight,” said Bradley who looked to get his team to wear down Liam Buckley’s men. Bradley brought back in Tomer Chencinski into his starting line up and the Canadian ‘keeper kept a clean sheet on his return to the Rovers goal.

“The first half was about moving the ball and taking the legs out of them as their game plan was obviously to sit in and come for a draw. It was about moving them and waiting for the opening and in the second half, because of our play in the first half, it opened up a lot more for us.”

The Hoops have accumulated ten points from the dozen on offer at home so far this season which is a great start to their league campaign. “The lads are making teams come (to Tallaght) and not like playing against us. That doesn’t just happen, that takes a lot of hard work and courage to get on the ball and move it.”

However Rovers have lost both games away from home so far this year (3-1 to Bohs and 1-0 to Cork City) so are still looking for their first points on their travels away from Tallaght. They face two trips to Munster next week starting with Limerick on Bank Holiday Monday (kick off 6.30pm) and Waterford on Friday evening.

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— Shamrock Rovers F.C. (@ShamrockRovers) March 17, 2018