Watch: Two goals in four second-half minutes see Shamrock Rovers stretch gap at the top to six points

Two goals in four minutes, from the unfortunate Colm Horgan and defender Pico Lopes, saw Shamrock Rovers stretch their Premier Division lead to six points.

The Hoops trailed at the break and their 100% record was under serious threat thanks to Walter Figueira’s fortuitous goal late in the first half.

That remained the case going into the final 12 minutes but two quickfire goals saw the Hoops to victory, despite a late scare courtest of Eoin Toal.

Read extratime.com senior reporter Macdara Ferris' match report here. 

Figuiera opened the scoring ten minutes before the break with a goal that won’t make good viewing for either Lopes or Hoops keeper Alan Mannus.

There seemed to be little danger as the Englishman’s inswinging cross was a yard or two too shallow for James Akintunde to connect with.

Lopes looked set to clear the ball with his head but, instead, he got his bearings wrong and the ball trickled all the way into the corner of the net past the outstretched Mannus.

Derry continued to defend stoutly and limited the Hoops to pot shots from distance, but the introduction of substitute Dean Williams swung the tie.

The youngster was the width of the post from landing his first Premier Division goal but he got his reward as the rebound cannoned back off the head of the unfortunate Horgan.



And Lopes redeemed his earlier error with nine minutes to play as he stabbed home Graham Burke's low cross after a bushwhacked Derry had been unable to clear a corner.

There was drama in injury time as man-of-the-match Toal steered his header onto the bar and a combination of Mannus and Lopes managed to deny Gerardo Bruna from point-blank range.

Rovers go six points clear of city rivals Bohemians with 21 points from seven games, while champions Dundalk are two points further back.



Read back on live updates as they happened here.

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