Goals: T Grant 87 minutes
Tennants' Shamrock Rovers gained a confidence-building win over landlords Pat's and revenge for last Monday's 3-0 League Cup defeat.
A poor game saw few chances for both sides, although Pat's went the closest through Livingstone. 47 minutes of the opening half failed to separate the sides in the battle of the landlords and tenants. A cagey start by both sides was due to a kick-off delayed by 10 minutes.
Rovers looked more composed towards the end. The second 45 saw Rovers maintain their slight stranglehold and Tony Grant scored the all-important goal on 87 minutes from three yards from a Richie Byrne flick-on at a corner to see Liam Buckley's side close in to just one point behind Shelbourne.
Shamrock Rovers: Ryan; Gough, Palmer, Byrne, Keddy; Robinson, Colwell, Reynolds, S.Grant; T.Grant, Fitzpatrick.
Subs: Molloy for Robinson (65 mins.), Lacey for Fitzpatrick (79 mins.), Deans for T. Grant 88 mins.)
St.Patrick's Athletic: Adamson; Donnelly, Prenderville, Maguire, El Khebir; Fahy, Osam, Murphy, Livingstone; Bird. Freeman.
Subs: Casey for El Khebir (68 mins.), George for Freeman (79 mins.), Dunne for Donnelly (87 mins.).
Referee: D McKeon (Dublin).