FAI Cup third round/ Shelbourne 0 Derry City 1: After seeing their side put Shelbourne out of the Carlsberg-sponsored FAI Cup in each of the past two seasons, those Derry City supporters, who made the journey for this year's encounter, could hardly have expected a particularly warm welcome in this part of the capital.

That they didn't care too much was entirely apparent before the game as they made their way down the Drumcondra Road taunting the disconsolate Dublin fans about their team's defeat by Mayo. A couple of hours later they had a song or two left in them as they set off on the long journey home having witnessed Darren Kelly ensure another famous victory with a 19th minute close-range header.

The win was City's 12th on the trot in all competitions and they are the only side still in contention to complete the treble. Nobody on the team bus last night, though, will have needed to be reminded that they pursued that particular crock of gold much later into the season than this last year when their hopes were sustained by a much longer unbeaten run. In the end, though, they had only a League Cup to show for their troubles.

Even that, however, was more than Shelbourne won and their understandable fear of ending up similarly empty handed this season would readily explain the level of commitment displayed by the home side in a game that was played at a relentless pace and memorable mainly for the terrific passion on display.

Watching from the stand, the Paris St Germain manager, Guy Lacombe, must have been impressed with the determination of the Derry players to defend their lead but he may also have taken encouragement from aspects of their play ahead his side's Uefa Cup first-round meeting with Derry at the Brandywell on September 14th.

Unlike Gretna, the French will know all about the danger posed by Kevin Deery at set pieces for the under-21 international set up the goal with a free from the left after Stuart Byrne took Ciaran Martyn down 35 metres out.

The 51-year-old will also have seen that Stephen Kenny's side can hold their own when a game descends into something of a scrap as this one did. It started with a fairly frantic battle in midfield where players from both sides got stuck in and spread to just about every other area of the pitch over the course of the 90 minutes.

He may have been less impressed, though, by the number of chances that the visitors conceded particularly over the course of the first half when Ollie Cahill, Glen Crowe and Bobby Ryan all had decent chances to beat David Forde. Only Cahill managed to force a save from the goalkeeper and he really should have done a little better after Eddie McCallion's misjudged back pass appeared to hand the midfielder a great chance to score.

Instead, Shelbourne had to step up their pursuit of the game in the second half and as they did so there was plenty more space to play into for Derry who finally began to create some chances of their own.

The bulk of the chances, though, came at the Derry end where Forde produced one especially good save from Colin Hawkins when required to. In the absence of the injured Jason Byrne, though, neither Crowe nor Gary O'Neill could quite get to grips with things in front of goal and things did not improve noticeably when O'Neill was withdrawn and Joseph Ndo pushed up front in his place.

"I'm delighted with the win," said Kenny afterwards. "We started well but Shelbourne forced us back with some good play. We changed things, though, and caused them some problems on the break through Kevin McHugh and Mark Farren."

On balance, he reckoned, his side deserved the win which is a view that might be contested by his opposite number, Pat Fenlon. The Shelbourne boss, however, had bigger problems to contend with as he contemplated three weeks without his team's skipper, Owen Heary, who limped out of the game in the first half with a hamstring problem that may yet keep him out of the league encounter between these two towards the end of next month.

SHELBOURNE: Delaney; Heary, Hawkins, Dillon, Rogers; Ryan, Ndo, S Byrne, Cahill; O'Neill, Crowe. Subs: O'Halloran for Heary (23 mins), Crawford for O'Neill (51 mins), Baker for Dillon (82 mins)

DERRY CITY: Forde; McCallion, Kelly, Oman, Hargan; Deery, Molloy, Martyn; McHugh, Beckett, O'Flynn. Subs: Holmes for O'Flynn (65 mins), Farren for Beckett (76 mins)

Referee: A Kelly (Cork).