Our under 13A's made the short journey to Shamrock Park to take on neighbours Rathnew in group 1 of the Premier shield tonight. The clashes between these two teams have proved tense and close this season and yet again the two sides didn't disappoint. Rovers made the early running pushing Rathnew back but couldn’t find the net. They eventually broke the deadlock when Richie Carton bravely won a penalty which Sam Conyard stepped up to coolly slot home. Rathnew defended really well and were hard to breach, the Villagers got themselves back on level terms but Rovers quickly restored their lead when Kale Conyard fired home to put Rovers 2-1 to the good. Dan Connolly made it 3-1 with a fantastic finish to give Rovers a two goal cushion but Rathnew never give up and they pulled one back to make it a tense finish. Rovers saw out the remaining minutes to cement top spot in group 1 of the shield. Special mentions go to Sam Czwalina with another solid performance in goal, Ben O’Leary and Harry Bowen were rocks again in the centre of defence and Tiernan Shorthall showed real leadership to spur his team on in another good team display. A big thanks to our neighbours Rathnew AFC for another exciting close encounter .