Late Johnny Kenny strike seals all three points for Shamrock Rovers at Galway

LOI Premier Division: Galway United 0 Shamrock Rovers 1 (Johnny Kenny 84) 

Two loanees combined late on to get Shamrock Rovers off to their first win at the fifth attempt in a campaign they hope to conclude with a fifth straight title.

Newly-promoted Galway looked just as likely to settle a tight contest until Darragh Burns, on loan from MK Dons, dashed to the endline and squared for Johnny Kenny to stroke the ball home from six yards.

Kenny, as a Sligoman, is aware of how the west can awaken in the League of Ireland and the striker - borrowed from Celtic again this term - took just 13 minutes from his introduction off the bench to nick it.

The return of captain Pico Lopes to the starting line-up last week, following a well-earned post-African Cup of Nations rest, began to give Rovers a familiar look of their champions but they still drew a blank at Sligo Rovers.

Though Lopes was prominent from the outset here, it was by incurring a fourth minute booking. Referee Paul McLaughlin was unwilling to afford the benefit of doubt when he hauled Conor McCarthy down after executing a sublime piece of control from a dropping ball. That had him on edge for another 90 minutes in a game that was bound to be niggly in the circumstances. His defensive partner Dan Cleary joined him later for another late challenge on the same left side of the pitch.

Galway have snapped their seven-year stay in the purgatory of the First Division to earn nights like this when the champions rock up with their boisterous travelling support.

Numerous factors have contributed to the revival. Retaining patience with a supremo who’d won the title as player after two unsuccessful tilts at promotion was fully vindicated for a start.

Luke Comer, one of