Shamrock Rovers 4 Cork City 4
Seán Hoare came to the rescue of Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium as the defending champions shared the spoils with Cork City at the end of an extraordinary eight-goal thriller.
While the visitors fell behind to a 13th-minute goal from Rory Gaffney, City were back on level terms when Ruairí Keating fired to the net off a Cian Bargary delivery.
It got even better for the Leesiders on 38 minutes as Darragh Crowley sensationally chipped Alan Mannus from all of 40 yards out.
Rovers equalised shortly after the resumption courtesy of Lee Grace’s finish from a Jack Byrne corner, but Cork swiftly restored their one-goal lead on 58 minutes with a low strike to the net by substitute Kevin Čustović off a set-piece move.
City were in sight of a major scalp when Crowley bagged a second goal on 69 minutes, but Simon Power subsequently reduced the Rovers deficit in a frantic final-quarter.
There was a long hold-up late on due to an injury sustained by Cork midfielder Aaron Bolger and with seven minutes of stoppage-time already played, Hoare’s looping header to the net secured a hard-earned point for the Hoops.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; Cleary, O’Neill (Hoare, 72 mins), Grace; Nugent (Farrugia, 46 mins), Watts (Towell, 72 mins), Poom (Burke, 57 mins), Clarke; Byrne, Kenny (Power, 64 mins); Gaffney.
CORK CITY: Corcoran; Walker (Čustović, 38 mins), Coleman, Gilchrist, Honohan; Healy, Bolger (Hakkinen, 93 mins); Bargary, Crowley, Krezic (Varian, 64 mins); Keating.
Referee: R Harvey (Dublin).