Shelbourne back on top

Soccer/National League: Having surrendered leadership of the league in midweek, Shelbourne reclaimed it in determined fashion…

Soccer/National League: Having surrendered leadership of the league in midweek, Shelbourne reclaimed it in determined fashion at Richmond Park last night where a Colm Foley own goal gave them the required edge over a St Patrick's side whose hopes of European football cannot survive many more nights likes this.

Little of what went on between the two sides was pretty and the hosts will feel aggrieved after being controversially reduced to 10 men early in the second half. But their visitors will be rightly pleased with the way they bounced back from Tuesday's defeat.

Shelbourne came with a different look about them from the side that was beaten by Bohemians. With Kevin Doherty missing, David Crawley and Stuart Byrne relegated to the bench and Jamie Harris reverting to defence, Dave Rogers had switched to left back while Tony McCarthy, Thomas Morgan and Stephen Geoghegan all reclaimed places in Pat Fenlon's line-up.

Despite the shake up, though, the pattern of the game was rather similar to the game in midweek with the visitors enjoying a good deal of possession and moving the ball about well without ever quite looking in command of a lively and fairly evenly balanced contest.

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Keith Fahey went closest to finding the back of the net for the home side during a frenetic first period but the locals' best chance came midway through the half when Tony Bird did well to create a bit of space for himself before slipping in a low cross for Gary McPhee that Dave Rogers did well to prevent reaching the unmarked striker.

Shelbourne's Ollie Cahill then cut in from the left and ended a fine run with a shot off the foot of the right hand upright but it was just short of the half hour that the real damage was done with Colm Foley turning a low cross from the right into his own goal at the near post as Chris Adamson moved of his line.

Lifted by the breakthrough, Shelbourne carried the game to their opponents almost from the restart and might have had a second within minutes, Jason Byrne this time springing the offside trap down the right but shooting over after cutting back into the box and passing up the chance to set up Geoghegan.

Had they doubled their lead the game would surely have been won against a St Patrick's team that has lost its knack for winning over the past couple of months. Instead Fenlon's men were becoming embroiled in a highly paced but disjointed tussle in which neither side seemed capable of finding their rhythm.

As the second half settled, though, referee Anthony Buttimer, irritated the home support with a couple of mildly unfavourable decisions before driving them to collective distraction by sending off Karim El Khebir when the view in the stands was clearly that Jim Crawford rather than the Frenchman had been the most guilty party.

To their credit St Patrick's did their best to battle back in a game that produced less quality but more excitement with each passing minute. In the end Barry Prenderville's narrowly wide header was as close as the hosts came to grabbing an equaliser and the frustrated home support heaped abuse on the match official as he made his way to the dressing-room as their counterparts started to celebrate their return to the front of a championship race that's getting better as the rounds of games roll on.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Adamson; Maguire, Foley, Delaney, El Khebir; Fahey, Prenderville, Osam (Donnelly, 80 mins), Dunne; Bird, McPhee (Rose, 69 mins).

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Harris, McCarthy, Rogers; R Baker, Crawford (S Byrne, 89 mins), Morgan, Cahill; Geoghegan (McCarthy, 80 mins), J Byrne.

Referee: A Buttimer (Cork)