St Patrick's Athletic and Shamrock Rovers swapped goals late on as they had to settle for a share of the spoils in their opening SSE Airtricity League Premier Division clash at Tallaght Stadium.
Visiting skipper Robbie Benson put Saints in front on 87 minutes when his cross was deflected to the net off Roberto Lopes.
Substitute Aaron Greene salvaged a point for the champions two minutes later when powering a superb header to the net, finally beating St Pat’s impressive teenage goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros.
Just after St Pat's took the lead late on, Shamrock Rovers fashioned an equaliser thanks to this brilliant header from Aaron Greene @RTE2 @RTEplayer #rtesoccer
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) March 19, 2021
Updates: https://t.co/b58OttCBr9 pic.twitter.com/hQLq4Pp6PT
Though not the winning start they would have craved, Rovers, invincible in winning the title last year, thus extend their unbeaten league run to 23 games stretching back to September 2019.
S Pat’s manager Stephen O’Donnell also maintains his impressive record against the Hoops, having not lost to them in four games - all draws - since taking charge at Richmond Park.
With new signings Jaros, John Mountney, Paddy Barrett, Ronan Coughlan and Matty Smith in a beefed up side from 2020, Saints pressed Rovers from the off, forcing two corners within the opening couple of minutes.
Buoyed by that, the well-organised visitors continued to ask questions of a Rovers side, unchanged from last week’s President’s Cup defeat on penalties to Dundalk, that was labouring to get a foothold in a scrappy match.
That they soon did, however, in getting their passing game going to work the first save of the match from Jaros on 20 minutes.
A sublime first-time ball from the influential Chris McCann played Graham Burke in down the inside-right channel. Jaros stood up well to parry the cross-shot with his legs as Benson completed the clearance.
Liverpool loanee Jaros saved comfortably from Burke again before the Rovers’ attacker forced their first corner of the night just past the half hour as Hoops began to dominate.
Saints’ defence had another let-off on 41 minutes, Burke again proving the danger man with the shot, as Lee Desmond did well to get his body in the way to make the block.
As they did in the first, St Pat’s began the second half on the front foot, bringing the first big save of the game from Alan Mannus just before the hour.
Barrett initially got away with a loose pass in his own area as St Pat’s countered quickly. Chris Forrester broke to pick out Smith who cut in from the left to put his laces through the ball off his right foot with Mannus, twice the age of his opposite number, going full stretch to push the ball out for a corner.
That opened the game up as St Pat’s had some frantic defending to do themselves minutes later.
Liam Scales’ left flank cross was pulled back by Sean Gannon for Danny Mandroiu whose effort was cleared off the line by man-of-the-match Desmond.
Jaros then excelled to keep Rovers out, brilliantly diving to his left to bat away a powerful strike from Mandroiu.
The 19-year-old Czech keeper was there again to thwart Burke with perhaps the save of the game in the 80th minute, adjusting his feet superbly to get down to touch the deflected shot round a post with his left hand.
Seven minutes later St Pat’s stole the lead.
Benson broke on the left and, in trying to find Smith at the far post, his cross was deflected into his own goal by Rovers' defender Lopes.
Rovers responded positively, levelling with a terrific goal on 89 minutes.
Sean Hoare whipped over a tremendous ball from the right which was met by Greene who scored with a powerful downward header.
"Maybe it'll be a good point but at the minute it just feels like we should have won"@stpatsfc's Lee Desmond won the Man of the Match award tonight but is ruing the late Shamrock Rovers equaliser #rtesoccer
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) March 19, 2021
Shamrock Rovers vs St Pat's recap: https://t.co/rX02QYsX8z pic.twitter.com/WJ3Vb2M8lM
Shamrock Rovers: Alan Mannus; Sean Hoare, Roberto Lopes, Joey O’Brien (Sean Kavanagh 71); Sean Gannon, Chris McCann, Ronan Finn (Dylan Watts 69), Liam Scales; Graham Burke, Danny Mandroiu; Rory Gaffney (Aaron Greene 55).
St Patrick’s Athletic: Vitezslav Jaros; John Mountney, Paddy Barrett (Sam Bone 84), Lee Desmond, Shane Griffin; Billy King (Jason McClelland h-t), Chris Forrester, Jamie Lennon, Robbie Benson, Matty Smith; Ronan Coughlan.
Referee: Rob Hennessy (Clare).
