Sheppard pounces to give Rovers the points

Shamrock Rovers produced a sporadically impressive performance in accounting for Limerick by 1-0 in their Airtricity League Premier Division encounter at a windswept Tallaght Stadium last night.

The hosts were largely dominant in the early exchanges and James Chambers was negligent in the fourth minute when placing his 20-yard shot too close to Barry Ryan, who collected comfortably.

Their ascendancy continued with both Conor Powell and Billy Dennehy testing Ryan's agility before the visitors finally showed some attacking intent in the 18th minute as Patrick Nzuzi's inventive run culminated in Danny Galbraith shooting wastefully at Richard Brush from eight yards.

The hosts resumed control of affairs, however, and should have taken the lead in the 29th minute but the influential Stephen Rice shot wastefully over from four yards following a delicious centre by Karl Sheppard in the 29th minute.

However, Rovers’ supremacy was eventually rewarded a minute later when an in-swinging corner-kick by Chambers was neatly flicked home by Karl Sheppard at the near post.

The second-half resumed with Rovers lacking the fluidity of the opening-half display and Limerick could well have levelled in the 53rd minute as Rory Gaffney outfoxed Derek Foran but his ensuing low shot was easily smothered by Brush.

That elusive second-goal almost arrived when a well-worked free-kick routine involving Finn and Rice saw the latter crash a deflected shot narrowly wide of Ryan’s post from 25 yards.