Late goals from Glen Crowe and Jason McGuinness gave Bohemians a scarcely deserved win in the first Dublin derby of the season before a crowd of around 5,000 at Dalymount Park.
The result was very harsh on Pat Scully’s vibrant Shamrock Rovers side, who dominated for long spells before succumbing to their first defeat of the campaign.
Trailing to Tadhg Purcell’s first-half opener, Bohemians finally came alive to level on 82 minutes when Crowe shot home from substitute Darren Mansaram’s lay-off – the Gypsies’ first shot on target in the whole match.
Central defender McGuinness then won it on 88 minutes when his looping header from Dessie Byrne’s cross from the left beat Barry Murphy.
With a better shape and purpose about them, Rovers settled the quicker and carved out two half chances inside nine minutes.
Bohemians goalkeeper Brian Murphy was scarcely troubled by David Cassidy’s low shot after an error by Byrne, while Ger Rowe headed wide from strike partner Purcell’s cross.
But Bohemians did experience a real let off on 21 minutes from the first decent delivery into the box from Rovers' right-back Ger O’Brien. Rowe got half a touch to help the ball on to Purcell’s whose toe-poke had to be pushed away by Murphy.
The same two combined to give Rovers a deserved lead after 29 minutes.
Out of nothing, Rowe hooked a cross into the area with Purcell getting a decent downward header to the ball. A hesitant Murphy seemed to think it was going wide, making little effort to prevent it bouncing before nestling in the bottom right-hand corner of his net.
That sparked a bit of life into Bohemians and they were almost level within ten minutes. Mark Rossiter surged forward from right-back, worked a one-two with Neale Fenn, before stretching to shoot wide.
Bohs had more impetus about them from the resumption and Rossiter again got forward well to shoot narrowly wide on 54 minutes.
But it was Rovers, with Rowe and Purcell dovetailing superbly up front, who might have doubled their lead on 63 minutes; the former forcing Murphy to tip over his bar with a speculative lob from over 20 yards.
Crowe greatly lifted Bohemains and they stole at the death thanks to McGuinness, a former Rovers player.
Bohemians: Murphy; Rossiter, McGuinness, Pooley, Powell (Harkin, h/t); Kingsberry, Rice, Kelly, Byrne; Crowe, Fenn (Mansaram, 65 mins)
Shamrock Rovers: Murphy; O’Brien, Ferguson, Ryan, Clarke; Pender (Duffy, 90 mins.), Barrett, Cassidy, Dave O’Connor (Colbert, 91 mins.); Purcell, Rowe
Referee: Alan Kelly (Cork)
