St. Patrick's Athletic 0 Shamrock Rovers 1:A cracker from Chris Turner gave Shamrock Rovers a much needed lift at Richmond Park and put them through to an FAI Cup final with Sligo Rovers.
The win was soured, however, after a pitch invasion by Rovers fans led to scuffled between both sets of supporters that took minutes for stewards and Gardai to break up.
Pat’s will argue the sending off of captain Damian Lynch soon after the break was the turning point in a match they had edged until then.
The started well and passed better than in the drawn game on Sunday and it wasn’t long before it yielded results. Two minutes in Ryan Guy fed Derek Doyle on the left, and the winger cut in just got under his shot.
Rovers’ gradually came into the game got their first real chance of the night on 21 minutes but Billy Dennehy poked it just wide after Thomas Stewart’s cross.
St. Patrick’s finished the half as they started and Rovers were relieved to see Lynch’s free-kick flash wide of a post.
The homeside were There was no let up to intensity of the game into the second half of a match than turned Rovers’ way as St. Patrick’s were reduced to ten men on 53 minutes when Lynch hauled Gary Twigg down outside the box and was dismissed.
A superbly contrived and executed goal then won it for Rovers in the 70th minute. The best passing move of the match fittingly resulted in Turner, involved in the initial build-up, collecting Twigg’s lay off to hit a crisp right-footed drive to the far corner of Rogers’ net.
St. Patrick’s Athletic: Rogers; Pender, Lynch, Kenna, Bermingham; McAllister, Mulcahy, Byrne (Stewart, 81 mins.), Doyle (Cash, 45+1 mins.); Guy, North (Faherty, 81 mins.).
Shamrock Rovers: Mannus; Flynn (Bradley, 80 mins.), Sives, Price, Stevens; Dennehy, Rice, Turner, Stewart; Twigg, Baker (Fenn, 87 mins.).
Referee: Tom Connolly (Dublin).
Attendance: 4,200