Shamrock Rovers 1 FC Flora Tallinn 0:Shamrock Rovers's Champions League fortunes swung in the home side's favour in the space of three first half minutes tonight and Michael O'Neill's side will travel to Tallinn next week with a 1-0 lead and, crucially, without the concession of an away goal.

But for Alan Mannus it may have been a different story as Rovers claimed a deserved win at the Tallaght Stadium, but Flora will rue a missed penalty that could have yielded a completely different outcome.

For all their dominance, Rovers did live on their nerves at times and had Mannus to thank for keeping their goal intact on the half hour mark. When Craig Sives brought down Markus Jürgenson, referee Jakob Kehlet had no hesitation in pointing to the spot but Valeri Minkenen’s tame effort was well stopped by Mannus.

Just over 90 seconds later, Chris Turner fired home the loose ball after Ronan Finn’s cross bounced around the area to give his side a precious advantage.

Rovers at that stage looked very good bets to add to their lead and had they been a little more clinical then next week’s return leg might have been a foregone conclusion. As it is, the tie looks evenly balanced but Rovers, on the strength of this display, will travel with confidence.

Tuesday's Champions League second qualifying round first leg results

Shamrock Rovers 1 Flora Tallinn (Estonia) 0
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) 2 Tobol Kostanai (Kazakhstan) 0
Mogren (Montenegro) 1 Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) 2
Maribor (Slovenia) 2 F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg) 0
Valletta FC (Malta) 2 Ekranas Panevezys (Lithuania) 3
Pyunik Yerevan (Armenia) 0 Viktoria Plzen (Czech Rep) 4