Shamrock Rovers 4
O'Connor 6', Purcell 30' 82', Cassidy 36'.
Monaghan Utd. 0

Tolka Park - Friday 30th June 2006 ko 8.00pm

Rovers Line-Out

1 Barry Murphy, 2 Shane Kelly, 3 Robbie Clarke, 4 Aidan Price, 5 Ray Kenny, 6 Eric McGill , 7 Dave Cassidy, 8 Ian Maher, 9 Tadhg Purcell, 10 Philip Sheppard , 11 Dave O'Connor.

Substitutes : 13 Ray Scully for Maher 70', 14 Jamie Duffy for O'Connor 66', 15 Padraig Amond, 16 Ian Ryan for Price 78', 20 John McGuinness.

Match Report

It took just six minutes on this sunny evening in Drumcondra for Rovers to open their account when a fine move saw Maher and Cassidy combining for the Hoops number 7 to send in a low cross that O'Connnor gleefully finished off from close range. Purcell then went close in the 11th minute as Cassidy played him in behind the defence with a nice through ball but the 'keeper blocked his shot.

The game died a little and it wasn't until the 28th minute, when Price just failed to meet Cassidys frre-kick, that Rovers threatened. However just two minutes later Cassidy fired in a fine free-kick that cannoned off the cross-bar and fell nicely for the alert Purcell to knock home. The Monaghan defence were torn apart in the 36th minute when Purcell started the move that ended with Sheppard laying off a lovely ball to Cassidy who coolly side-footed the ball home.

Barry Murphy held a decent effort from the Monaghan number 10 in the 43rd minute before O'Connor went close when he connected with a deep Cassidy cross. The second half was a little disappointing with Monaghan never giving up and coming close on a number of occasions to getting a consolation goal. Their best effort came eight minutes into the second-period when hesitancy in the Hoops defence let the Monaghan number six in but his shot hit the cross-bar. The same player was unlucky with a rebound that went just wide in the 80th minute.

However Rovers had the final say in the 82nd minute when Purcell ran on to a through ball to calmly shoot into the corner of the net for the Hoops fourth.