WHEN the only player who is capable of scoring against you is a substitute with a price tag of €36million, who nicks a goal four minutes from time, you know you're doing something right.

This morning around Tallaght, the rubbish was swept up and the temporary stands dismantled but the smiles on the faces of Shamrock Rovers fans will linger for a while yet as Michael O'Neill and his bright young Hoops team made a valuable point on the football field as well as a valuable profit off the park from their friendly with Real Madrid.

In time, the scoreline will matter little -- the fact that Benzema marked his first appearance in a Real shirt following his €36m move from Lyon (how small that fee now appears given the cash splashed out by the same club on Kaka and Ronaldo) with a slightly scrappy goal four minutes from the end, which gave Real a 1-0 win, will be merely a footnote for the season.

Bigger prizes are at stake for Real, as they have provided coach Manuel Pellegrini with the tools (players) to win the Champions League, and failure to land that trophy next May will cost him his job.

But Rovers were the real winners against Real. The home side, despite being depicted, insultingly, in sections of the UK press (and also, shamefully, parts of our own media) as a cross between Rag Ball Rovers, The Belgard Inn First XI and a cliché of Plucky Bunch Of Irish Part-Timers Earning €100 A Week And Living At Home With Their Mammy, Rovers were not only worthy of sharing a field with a Real team worth around €400m but also deserved to get a result.

DISAPPOINTED

"It's a good sign that we are disappointed to have lost to Real Madrid. I think we lived with them for much of the game. It's just a pity we didn't keep them to 0-0, Dessie Baker had a couple of great chances towards the end and we could have nicked it," Rovers captain Shane Robinson told the Herald.

"Before the game people were saying that we might lose 4-0 or 5-0. they were wondering how many goals Ronaldo would score, but it was a decent match. We had a couple of chances ourselves so we did ourselves justice. People get carried away with all the talk about money and transfer fees, but we're professionals too, we train just as hard as they (Real) do, we're as dedicated as they are.

"Of course they are paid a lot more and they are technically better than us, but there was no difference in work-rate between the teams last night and that's what I take from the game.

"I enjoyed the night, it was good to just play the game after all the talk that had gone on beforehand. There was no real pressure on us on the night, we just wanted to enjoy the occasion and give a good account of ourselves.

"The one disappointing thing was conceding the goal, it probably wasn't their best passage of play on the night and yet they scored from it, it was a long ball that did us in the end. It just shows you that you can play all the nice football you want but sometimes a Jack Charlton-style long ball can work for you," Robinson added.

Pre-match, much of the talk was about the man who wore No9 for Real last night, Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro. And it was encouraging from the start to see the Rovers support last night greet the €94m man with some good-natured booing, reminding the player that he was playing against their team, Rovers, and they didn't plan to lie down and swoon like weak-kneed little girls before football's most famous winker. Those Rovers fans, true football supporters, didn't pay in to see some hair gel and backheels from a Portuguese star, they wanted their team to win.

In fairness, Rovers winning the game was never really on the cards, but for long periods they also looked like they would not lose. Early efforts from Marcelo and Guti showed signs of Real's potency but it took just 11 minutes for Rovers to threaten, through winger Sean O'Connor.

Real stroked and caressed the ball but rarely got too close to Barry Murphy's goal, with Ronaldo doing little to wow the crowd, and a first-half free kick that was well wide was his last real effort for Real.

Madrid made nine changes at the break, but the power of their squad was shown by the quality of the subs: Salgado, Heinze, Sneijder, Van Der Vaart and Benzema just some.

Real looked more of a threat with those nine on the field (only Jerzy Dudek and Lasanna Diarra stayed on after the break), Van Der Vaart a particular threat.

Rovers had made changes too, and their subs were no mugs either, as replacement keeper Robert Duggan made two fine saves, from Alvaro Negredo and Van Der Vaart, before Benzema finally broke the deadlock and with only four minutes left.

With the goal and the win in the bag, Real ran down the clock and after Alan Kelly had blown the whistle, all that remained was the business of swapping shirts.

"It was a case of swap jerseys with whoever you were standing next to. I got Guti's jersey, I'd said it to him about swapping shirts and he was fine with it, he picked me out after the game to swap so it's nice to have," said Robinson.

"I will watch him more closely now throughout the season in the Champions League and La Liga. I know I might never get a chance to play against a player of that quality again but hopefully we can have more big nights in the Champions League or the Europa League."