Holland says sharpness up front will come as duo recover from injury

While they were second-best for much of the opening 45 minutes, United edged matters in the second-half, but had just one effort on target in the whole 90 minutes, a tame Arthur Parker header that Ed McGinty easily dealt with in the Rovers goal.

The game did see Frantz Pierrot make his fourth substitute appearance in a row, but once again Nicolas Chateau was missing from the match-day squad, with Holland explaining that the club has to be careful in managing their return to action after long-term injuries.

“That will come,” he says in relation to a cutting-edge up front. “Look, we have to be careful with Frantz [Pierrot]. He's only just in and he has nothing behind him in terms of games and stuff. So, look, I know the temptation is there to bring him in and all the rest of it, but you can see just, he’s not quite there yet, but once he’s there, hopefully, we’ll have him firing.

“Again, Nicholas came in very late, you know, so again, we’re doing individual stuff with him at the moment. He just wasn’t in the squad tonight, but he’s one that we’re looking at in terms of building up as well.

“He had a long-term injury, he is back off long-term injury last season. So again, we are just being careful with him at the moment,” Holland said.

Friday was United’s fourth away game of the season, and all four have been in Dublin. That run of games returned just a single point thanks to a 1-1 draw with Shelbourne, but they were three minutes away from taking a point off Bohs, and one minute from doing the same against Pats, so they are not a million miles away.

“It’s a young team, a new team, but we'll keep working to improve things,” Holland said.