Shamrock Rovers fell to their first defeat of the season at Tolka Park as a more ruthless Drogheda took the spoils from an entertaining game.
It was the eager Hoops who made the first chance of the night when Tommy Barrett gathered a David McGill cross ten yards out.
Barrett chased down the ball and with his back to goal the Limerick native executed an overhead kick which was comfortably saved by Drogheda goalkeeper Mikko Vilmunen.
That was pretty much as close as either team went to scoring for the next fifteen minutes or so before Shamrock Rovers striker Tadhg Purcell headed tamely at Vilmunen after a swirling cross from Robbie Clarke.
Less than sixty seconds later, Glen Fitzpatrick spurned the first decent Drogheda opportunity in front of goal, before the play quickly swung to the opposite end.
Clarke supplied the ammunition from the left, Rovers team-mate Ferguson allowed the ball to run as far as McGill, but his goalbound effort was deflected out for a corner-kick.
Rovers were left to rue their failure to make the most of those first half openings when former player Shane Robinson struck twice in a four minute spell soon after the resumption.
Zayed made the most of some slack marking with a jinking run in from the right, the move ended with the striker picking out Robinson who squeezed the ball home from 18 yards.
Rovers were rocked by a second goal on 59 minutes when Robinson converted a free from Bradley, before Drogheda had Glen Fitzpatrick sent-off.
Predictably the Hoops poured forward in the final quarter and they eventually found the Drogheda net with the aid of the upright, and a volley from David Cassidy.
It an exciting finale Rovers almost stole a point when Barry Ferguson stooped with a headed effort which was cleared by Stephen Bradley.
