The Bit O’ Red travelled to Dublin for the second time in three days to take on Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium on Monday night.

Liam Buckley made five changes to his team from Friday’s defeat to Shelbourne with Garry Buckley returning from suspension and Seamas Keogh, Max Mata, Jordan Hamilton and Colm Horgan all coming in for David Cawley who was injured, Aidan Keena, Paddy Kirk, Will Fitzgerald and Mark Byrne. Edward McGinty was due to start in goal however he didn’t complete the warm up due to a rib injury which didn’t heal in time from Friday.

It was a windy night in Tallaght and this meant that both sides looked to get the ball down and play in the first half. The Bit O’ Red had plenty of chances to catch the home side on the counter attack but more often than not, the final ball was lacking. There were half chances as Rovers got in down the left but crosses from McDonnell and McCourt were both cleared by the hosts defence.

Neither side had any serious chances in an even first half.

Stephen Bradley made four half time changes with Graham Burke, Andy Lyons, Chirs McCann and Rory Gaffney all coming on to replace Aaron Greene, Aidamo Emakhu, Gary O’ Neill and Neil Farrugia.

This gave the home side the edge and it wasn’t long until they took the lead. Graham Burke found space in the area and his shot went in past Brush after 54 minutes. Just a minute later it was two. Rory Gaffney got onto a loose ball before finding Burke who took his time and fired past Brush from 15 yards.

Max Mata, Jordan Hamilton and Seamas Keogh were replaced by Will Fitzgerald, Aidan Keena and Cillian Heaney but the home side added to their lead with Burke completing his hat-trick with a curling left footed effort from the angle of the area.

The Bit O’ Red pressed for a goal back and had half chances through Keena and Heaney which were cleared by the Shamrock Rovers defence but Keena did pull one back inside the last ten minutes with a fine strike into the top corner from a tight angle.

The game was seen out by the hosts from there on in and Rovers suffered a second defeat on the road in three days.

Next up we face St Patrick’s Athletic at The Showgrounds this Saturday evening at 7.45pm

Photo: Sportsfile