Shamrock Rovers 1 Waterford FC 0

Waterford FC remain rooted to the bottom of the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division following another defeat where they lost out to the champions Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium.

But for ninety four minutes the Blues battled away and perhaps might have grabbed a share of the spoils

Jon Daly was forced into making changes with Cian Barrett loan tied so Evan McLaughlin came in while Conan Noonan started in place of Luke Heeney and Dean McMenamy returned in place of Sam Glenfield.

As expected, Rovers dominated possession but had little goalmouth chances until the opening goal on 25 minutes when Matt Healy slipped the ball to Enda Stevens on the overlap and his pass was flicked to the net by Graham Burke.

Arlo Doherty was busy on 37 minutes as he denied Michael Noonan and the post came to his rescue when Noonan got behind the defence four minutes before the break.

To their credit, the visitors battled throughout and with a couple of chances falling to Padraig Amond but Ed McGinty was in fine form in the Rovers goal.n The best of these came on 55 minutes when A great cross field pass found the veteran striker inside the area but McGinty spread himself well to deny the Blues’ captain.

Evan McLaughlin had a great chance 17 minutes from time when he broke through but he elected to shoot when Sam Glenfield appeared to be better placed.

Waterford continued to press forward and into injury time they had one final chance as Jordan Faria raced goalwards but his shot was smothered by McGinty.

Shamrock Rovers: McGinty, Stevens, Lopes (Grace 68′), Healy, Burke (Greene 68′), Mulraney (Matthews 63′), Brennan (Asamoah 68′), Sobowale, Byrne (Watts 63′), Noonan, Ozhianvuna

Waterford FC: Doherty, Houston (Faria 83′), Couto, Mahon, Long, Cann, McLaughlin (Coyle 77′), Noonan, McMenamy (Lonergan 83′), Amond (Glenfield 71′), Carty (Voilas 71′)

Referee: Luca Keating