Shamrock Rovers made it six on the bounce without defeat and three wins on the bounce as they defeated St. Patrick’s Athletic 1-0 at Tallaght Stadium thanks to a Rory Gaffney second-half header. 

The only goal of the game came after 50 minutes when Danny Mandroiu delivered a right-hand side cross that deflected off Tom Grivosti and landed perfectly on the head of Gaffney at the back post.  

It was a slow opening 20 minutes to the game with neither side creating any clear-cut chances. The first big call of the game came after 35 minutes when Jack Byrne played through Danny Mandroiu down the left-hand side who raced into the box and was shouldered to the ground by James Abankwah.  

Abankwah would be involved in the thick of the action 10 minutes later after an altercation with Gary O’Neill resulted in the young full-back receiving the first yellow card of the game. Joe Redmond joined Abankwah for the visitors a minute later when he brought down Mandroiu.  

The away side began to grow into the game throughout the first half and created some half chances in decent positions. Firstly, Darragh Burns cut inside onto his left foot just on the edge of the box, but his shot deflected out for a corner. Secondly, minutes later Eoin Doyle fed Billy King on the right-hand side who made his way inside and his effort was palmed away by Alan Mannus.  

The away side failed to create anything in the second half as they now go two games without finding the back of the net. The result sees them collect only two points from their last four games. 

Rovers made three changes to their starting line-up with Lyons, Burke, and Gannon all dropping out for Mandroiu, Kavanagh, and Lopes. St. Pat's made two changes following last week’s 0-0 draw with Dundalk as Murphy and Coughlan were replaced with Forrester and McClelland. 

For Rovers, it is another home game on Monday evening when they host Dundalk while for St. Pat’s it is a trip to UCD for another Dublin derby.