St Patrick’s Athletic 1

Shamrock Rovers 2

Ronan Macnamara reports from Richmond Park

SHAMROCK ROVERS moved 10 points clear at the summit of the Premier Division after a 10-minute surge in the second half.

Andy Lyons’ sixth goal of the season and a piece of individual brilliance from Aaron Greene took the game away from St Patrick’s Athletic who will rue a catalogue of missed opportunities.

Eoin Doyle pulled one back from the spot in stoppage time.

Rovers were far from their best and former Bolton striker Doyle should have put the Inchicore outfit in front five minutes before the break, but after losing his footing at the crucial moment, he scooped the ball into the grateful arms of Alan Mannus.

Billy King spurned an early chance before he was presented with another opportunity to break the deadlock on the stroke of half-time. However, he failed to make sufficient contact with his effort from inside the area and fired over.

In the absence of Jack Byrne and Danny Mandroiu, Rovers looked blunt in the opening period with a long-range Greene effort and a Pico Lopes flick the best they could muster.

Buoyed by their end to the half, Tim Clancy’s side came out firing after the restart. Eoin Doyle saw a header flash the wrong side of the post, before Chris Forrester and the fervent Darragh Burns tried their luck from distance.

You can never rule out the champions and they struck heavily against the run of play on the hour.

The move began with a crisp pass from Lee Grace into midfield and Greene’s low cross found a storming Lyons who rifled the ball into the roof of the net.

With 20 to play the game was effectively put to bed in sensational style courtesy of a brilliant solo effort from Greene. He danced around the Saints defenders on the endline with two nutmegs and smashed the ball by Anang at his near post.

Tunde Owulabi was summoned for the final 10 minutes and he should have set up a grandstand finish but with the goal gaping his shot was cleared off the line.

The substitute did win a penalty deep into injury time before Doyle calmly slotted in to give Pat’s hope, but it was too little too late.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Joseph Anang, Jack Scott, Joe Redmond, Tom Grivosti, Chris Forrester, Eoin Doyle, Mark Doyle (McCormack 77), Billy King, Adam O’Reilly, Darragh Burns (Owulabi 81), Anto Breslin.

Shamrock Rovers: Alan Mannus, Sean Gannon (Finn 72), Sean Hoare, Roberto Lopes, Lee Grace, Dylan Watts (Ferizaj 83), Aaron Greene (Burke 77), Gary O’Neill, Rory Gaffney (Emakhu 72), Andy Lyons, Chris McCann (Cotter 77)