Soccer

Shelbourne work past St Pat’s to maintain lead at the top

John Martin strikes to give Damien Duff’s side a first win in almost a month with rival sides elsewhere dropping points

Shelbourne head coach Damien Duff celebrates after the victory over St Patrick's Athletic. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Shelbourne head coach Damien Duff celebrates after the victory over St Patrick's Athletic. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Gavin Cummiskey at Tolka Park
Fri Apr 26 2024 - 22:33
Shelbourne 1 St Patrick’s Athletic 0

A John Martin special earned Shelbourne their first win since March 29th. It keeps them three points clear of Derry City at the top of the table. It also keeps the dream of a first Premier Division title since 2006 alive.

Sean Boyd won’t get much credit from the 4,755 crowd for arriving late into this contest but the centre forward repeated his trick against Shamrock Rovers on Monday night by heading clear in the final seconds of injury-time.

Something in the collective Shelbourne consciousness clicked after half an hour. Recycling possession without ever delivering the final ball was not going to end their five-match winless streak.

It began with what looked like a Damien Duff yellow card from referee Robert Harvey as punishment for overzealous querying of the linesman. Clean shaven with a new trim, Duff discarded his jacket and began querying his players instead.

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They responded. Matt Jarvis came off the left, jinking and twisting into the box, while putting Ryan McLaughlin on his backside, only for a tame shot to be gathered by St Patrick’s Athletic goalkeeper Daniel Rogers.

Next, Mark Coyle hit a stinging effort from distance, that Rogers parried.

With Joe Redmond missing from St Pat’s defence and no Ruairi Keating up front, Shels kept overlapping down the right, where Matty Smith whipped a low ball into the box for Martin to finish, first time.

One-nil, Tolka Park played the techno goal music.

Williams, Sean Gannon and Liam Burt had their guests backpedaling, with the latter forcing another save from Rogers.

But St Pat’s possess too much quality to disintegrate and when teenager Mason Melia was bowled over, Jake Mulraney almost spun a free-kick into the bottom corner.

“You can’t be offside in your own half!” Duff roared at the linesman, which finally got him a booking. Turns out assistant coach Joey O’Brien received the earlier caution.

St Pats’ five yellow cards came via the traditional method of fouls on the pitch.

As news filtered into Drumcondra that Galway United had taken a 1-0 lead over Rovers in Tallaght (it finished 1-1) and with Bohs losing 2-0 to Dundalk at Oriel Park, Shels were comfortable at the top of the premier division, again.

Jarvis hesitated over a chance to secure all three points but this prompted a fresh wave of attacking football; Gavin Molloy could not believe his downward header from Tyreke Wilson’s curling free-kick was saved by Rogers.

Boyd closed the show, again.

Shelbourne: Kearns; Gannon, Molloy, Ledwidge, Wilson; Smith (O’Sullivan 76), Lunney, Coyle; Burt, Jarvis (Caffrey 89); Martin (Boyd 66).

St Patrick’s Athletic: Rogers; McLaughlin, Keeley, Turner, Breslin; Lennon (Palmer 66), Forrester; Bolger (Leavy 80), Kavanagh, Mulraney (Nolan 66); Melia (Kavanagh 60).

Referee: Robert Harvey.

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey is The Irish Times' Soccer Correspondent