Dundalk (0) 1 - Quigley 90+3'

Rovers (0) 2 - Dennehy 57' O'Donnell pen. 74'           
 

Airtricity League - Oriel Park - Saturday 3rd September 2011

Hoops Line out
1 Richard Brush
2 Pat Sullivan
3 Jim Paterson
4 Craig Sives
5 Dan Murray (c)
6 Stephen Rice
7 Gary McCabe
8 Stephen O'Donnell
9 Gary Twigg
10 Karl Sheppard
14 Rohan Ricketts

Substitutes
21 Billy Dennehy
for McCabe ht
11 Ciaran Kilduff
for Twigg 71'
18 Chris Turner
for Rice 82'
22 Karl Moore
19 Gary O'Neill
13 Pat Flynn
1 Robert Hughes

Two second-half goals from Billy Dennehy and a penalty from Stephen O'Donnell sent Rovers back to the summit of the League. Good debut performances from Brush, Paterson and Ricketts was another positive for the Hoops in Oriel Park.

An overall disappointing first-half started with Rovers keeping possession well but Dundalk had the first chance with Gaynor forcing Brush to beat away his shot from the edge of the box.

On 14 minutes Ricketts played Sheppard in on the left side of the box but he shot over the bar. Four minutes later a low Gaynor cross looked like Byrne would get the vital touch but Paterson got his foot the ball to clear.

Rovers forced two corners in the 19th minute but ‘keeper Cherrie was on hand to punch the second-kick away. Ricketts almost picked out Sheppard in the area before Sullivan drilled the ball across goal but Twigg couldn’t direct the ball on goal.

Richard Brush took Ward’s corner wit ease on 25 minutes and seven minutes later his long clearance was chased down by Gary Twigg but his shot was comfortably saved by Cherrie.

The rest of the half provided little in the way of goalmouth action but Jason Byrne was on hand to make two defensive headers in the 45th minute.

The second-half saw Billy Dennehy introduced on the left and Ricketts was moved to the right side as Rovers looked to stretch the Dundalk defence. Murphy headed over for the home side on 49 minutes before Ward sent a volley from all of 25 yards wide of the Hoops goal.

Rovers took the lead on 59 minutes when Sheppard fed Ricketts down the right and he sent the ball across the Dundalk goal for Dennehy to slot the ball into the net from close range at the back post.

Rovers were in control of the game and the impressive Ricketts again split the home defence on 67 minutes for Dennehy to run in on goal and he flicked the ball over the advancing ’keeper but a defender got back to clear.

A minute later Dan Murray made a great tackle to deny Gaynor a shot in the box as Dundalk tried to get back into the game.

Rovers increased their lead when Ricketts knocked a ball over the home defence for substitute Kilduff to run on to and defender McHugh was adjudged to have bundled the Hoops striker over and Ref. Winters pointed to the spot.

Stephen O’Donnell stepped up again to convert the penalty.

The home side almost hit back immediately when Quigley’s low cross was touched on by Griffen but Brush got down well to save. A Stephen O’Donnell free kick on 77 minutes saw Kilduff get his header in but the ball went past Cherrie’s left-hand post.

Richard Brush made two good punches to clear the danger as the Lilywhites applied some pressure with eleven minutes remaining but Dennehy’s cross on 82 minutes just evaded Kilduff and Sheppard in front of goal.

As the game entered the 90th minute Brush easily saved Quigley’s free-kick from 20 yards but in the third minute of added-on time Quigley glanced a header into the Hoops net from a free-kick on the right.

There was a last frantic minute before Referee Winter blew the whistle and the Hoops deservedly took the points and went clear at the top. Stephen Rice won the Setanta man of the match award and quite rightly so.