Castlebar Celtic 0

Shamrock Rovers 2
Doyle 48' Purcell 70'

FAI Cup - Celtic Park - Sunday 28th May 2006

Rovers Line-Out

1 Barry Murphy, 2 Ger O'Brien, 3 Robbie Clarke, 4 Aidan Price, 5 Ian Ryan, 6 Ray Scully, 7 Jamie Duffy, 8 Dave Cassidy , 9 Willie Doyle, 10 Philip Sheppard, 11 Robbie Shields.

Substitutes : 13 Tadhg Purcell (Sheppard 53'), 14 Eric McGill (Shields 88'), 15 Padraig Amond (Doyle 80'), 16 Ray Kenny, 20 John McGuinness.

Match Report

Rovers survived some early scares in the first half to progress to the 3rd Round of the FAI Cup at Castlebar's Celtic Park. The Hoops got their act together to produce a fine 2nd half display with Doyle and Purcell scoring one each.

The home side started well and won a couple of early free-kicks that player manager Dykes superbly floated into the Rovers area to cause panic. The Hoops failed to clear twice with both Aiden Price and Barry Murphy showing nerves when dealing with Celtic's free kicks. The home sides best chance of this early pressure came when number eight headed narrowly wide from a corner.

Barry Murphy came to the Rovers rescue on 13 minutes when a superb free-kick from 20 yards was tipped over the bar by the Hoops number one. Rovers gradually got into the game and Duffy's free-kick almost found the head of Price before a Cassidy free-kick from 25 yards was saved by the home 'keeper. Rovers best move of the half came in the 27th minute when Sheppard was played in on goal but scuffed his effort wide. The first half petered out with Rovers happy to have survived the early pressure.

The 2nd half was completly different. Rovers stepped up the pace and their passing became better. It took just three minutes for Doyle to send Duffy away down the right and then stretch to knock the return pass into the Celtic net. The Hoops assumed complete control and Price headed over from a corner before Scully was almost sent through on goal.

Celtic hit back in the 65th minute and had a shot blocked in the area before the resultant corner was headed over. The game was sealed when a fine move saw O'Brien cross for the 'keeper to make a fine point blank save but Purcell followed up to score. Cassidy then went close with a free-kick just two minutes later. The home side kept battling but couldn't find a way past the Hoops defence.

Duffy fired well over the bar from a corner in the 84th minute before a lovely back-heel by Purcell set up Ger O'Brien but he elected to cross instead of shooting and the chance was closed. There was one last chance when Purcell forced a fine save from the home 'keeper in the dying minutes with a close range shot.