Liam Buckley was pleased with the fitness and application of his players as they secured a shock win over Dundalk FC in The Showgrounds on Saturday evening in The Showgrounds.

The Rovers manager saw his side move inside the top half with a terrific team performance – something the Rovers manager was seeking in the run-up to the game.

He said: “We’ve done well in fairness. We sat back quite a bit in the second half – probably a bit too much for my liking. Nonetheless it is a great result.

“We took our goals very well. We had one or two other good chances to nail it. I’m just delighted we’ve picked up a win against Dundalk. Not too many teams will do that

“I thought Ed’s penalty save was critical. 1-0 and 1-1 at half-time is very different. We wanted to build on it. To bag a second and third goal was great. To be honest with you I was still nervous at 3-0 because it is Dundalk.

“Themselves and Shamrock Rovers have gigantic squads where they can juggle things around and change things in a heartbeat.

“They did have one or two chances in the second half. Nonetheless the lads have worked hard and deserved their win.”

Buckley is quick to play down the current form, saying if Rovers are to repeat the success, it will take continued application.

“We’ve done well in the last few games. That said, I’ve said this before, there are no easy games in this division. There is very little in a lot of teams. You have to turn up every week and in fairness we have turned up every week and put in a shift.

“Even losing in Cork, I thought the lads worked extremely hard and were a little bit unlucky. Outside of that we’ve done really well, we’ve worked extremely hard and their fitness has been really good. Long may that continue.”