Shamrock Rovers 1, Sporting Fingal 2: AFTER SHAMROCK Rovers' defeat to Bohemians last Tuesday night it wasn't hard to imagine Michael O'Neill's squad gathered in a dark corner of Dalymount Park clicking their heels together and chanting: "There's no place like home."

It was their third successive away defeat, during which time they had seen a seven-point lead at the top of the table reduced to a perilous two.

So back in Tallaght Stadium on Saturday afternoon they faced Sporting Fingal hoping to rediscover the form that had brought them to the summit of the league in the first place.

And 86 minutes into the game it looked as if Rovers were about to reclaim their place at the top of the pile. Despite Bohemians beating St Patrick’s Athletic in an earlier kick-off, temporarily leapfrogging them into first place, Rovers were 1-0 up and on their way to three crucial points.

Thomas Stewart had scored in the 13th minute when Gary Twigg had selflessly provided him with a tap-in from six yards and while Fingal had rallied with a Seán Williams header that grazed the Rovers’ crossbar and a similar effort from Colin Hawkins that flew narrowly wide, Rovers had created a healthy majority of the scoring chances.

How then did they ever contrive to lose 2-1 and plunge themselves into a scenario of such nightmarish proportions? Well, as a clearly shattered Michael O’Neill said after the game: “We made bad decisions.” And how.

In the 63rd minute Rovers midfielder Chris Turner chose to play for a penalty when he must surely have scored had he chosen to stay on his feet. He took the spot kick himself and smashed it off the bar.

But Rovers, having missed more chances than was decent, were still ahead. Until, that is, with three minutes left to play, a skewed back header from Stephen Rice landed at the feet of Aidan Price just 10 yards from his own goal line.

He could, as his goalkeeper Alan Mannus expected him to do, have put his foot through it and cleared his lines. Instead he chose to protect the ball, waiting for Manus to collect. Mannus stayed where he was until Gary O’Neill lost patience, nipped in, and looped the ball into the Rovers net.

And there was more to come. With just one minute left on the clock former Bohemians hitman Glen Crowe found too much space at the edge of the box. His crisp shot spun off the leg of Price and beyond Mannus for what proved to be a cruel winner.

Whether or not Rovers can recover from this blow remains to be seen but few who were there doubted that they had witnessed the death knell of their title hopes. Just two games remain now and there is always the possibility that fate will intervene in Rovers’ favour. It just doesn’t seem very likely.

SHAMROCK ROVERS:Mannus; Flynn, Sives, Price, Stevens; Chambers, Turner, Rice, Dennehy; Stewart, Twigg.

SPORTING FINGAL: Clarke; O'Brien, Browne, Hawkins (Kirby, 75 mins), Fitzgerald (Cahill, 82 mins); Byrne, Williams, Finn, McFaul; Crowe, O'Neill.

Referee: D Hanney (Dublin).