Rovers  (1) 2  - McCabe 33'  Twigg 51'
Waterford Utd (0) 0 - 

Pre-Season Friendly - Tallaght Stadium - Friday 25th February 2011 - ko 8.00pm

Hoops Line out
1 Alan Mannus
2 Pat Sullivan
3 Enda Stevens
24 Ken Oman
5 Dan Murray (c)
6 Stephen Rice
18 Chris Turner
7 Gary McCabe
9 Gary Twigg
10 Karl Sheppard
20 Billy Dennehy

Substitutes:

8 Stephen O'Donnell
for Rice 72'
11 Ciaran Kilduff
for Twigg 57'
13 Pat Flynn
14 Dean Kelly
15 Paddy Kavanagh
for Dennehy 72'
16 Ryan Thompson
19 Gary O'Neill
17 Akeem Priestly
for Sheppard 72'
19 Gary O'Neill
21 Ronan Finn for Turner ht
22 Connor McCormack

      Chris Turner

A fairly entertaining game saw Rovers overcome a combatitive Waterford side with two well taken goals.

The visotors could have taken the lead after 8 minutes but Alan Mannus produced a fine save pushing away a shot from inside the box.

The Hoops hit back and Gary McCabe saw his deflected shot just miss the target and Murray in the Waterford defence blocked a Gary Twigg effort on 18 minutes. From the resultant corner Karl Sheppard saw his header hit the crossbar.

McCabe and Sheppard combined again on 23 minutes but the Hoops number ten failed to get a shot on goal. The visitors 'keeper made a fine save from Billy Dennehy on 28 minutes and was then called into the action again to push away Gary Twiggs fine strike from all of 35 yards.

Rovers took the lead on 33 minutes when Gary McCabes blistering left footed strike from 30 yards gave the Waterford 'keeper no chance. 

Rovers new signing Ronan Finn made his entrance at half-time but the visitors struck early in the second period with Mannus diving to his right to push away a good shot from the Blues number eight.

The Hoops increased their lead on 51 minutes when Gary Twigg pounced on a breaking ball to run into the area and drive a low shot into the net.

In the 55th minute Mannus had to be alert to save a shot from Kiely inside the box and just before the hour Rovers captain Dan Murray made a fine defensive header to clear a dangerous cross.

A Stephen Rice free-kick on 63 minutes was headed down by Ken Oman into the path of Billy Dennehy but he fired over the bar from close range.

After 77 minutes substitute Paddy Kavanagh ran at the Waterford defence and the ball fell for Sullivan to cross fro Kilduff to head towards goal but Murray got back to head off the line.

Kavanagh's run with ten minutes remaining won a free-kick just outside the box and Stephen O'Donnells shot forced the 'keeper to dive low to save.