FAI CUP FINAL Sligo Rovers 0 Shamrock Rovers 0( Sligo win 2-0 on penalties AET): AFTER AN afternoon in which the absence of their main goal scorer seemed increasingly likely to mean they might come up short in a Ford-sponsored FAI Cup Final once again, it was a goalkeeper who effectively clinched the trophy for Paul Cook's Sligo Rovers side at the Aviva Stadium yesterday with Ciarán Kelly producing four straight saves in a remarkable penalty shoot-out.

Cook said afterwards he had felt his side would win yesterday in a way he never had a year ago in Tallaght when they lost a game to Sporting Fingal that they had led six minutes from time. However, an awful lot of people watching the best-attended final in 42 years must have suspected that by passing up so many chances to win in normal and extra time, his team had handed fate a golden opportunity to give them another good kicking.

Once again Sligo were the better side, controlling the game for long spells and creating the bulk of its scoring chances. Up front, though, they sorely missed Matthew Blinkhorn with Eoin Doyle and John Russell incapable in his absence of finding a way to break down the determined resistance of Alan Mannus, Pat Flynn and, in particular, Craig Sives.

The Dubliners started brightly enough and Gary Twigg even threatened to grab an early goal with a shot on the turn that flew narrowly over. For the most part, however, Michael O’Neill’s Shamrock Rovers side was second best in key areas, especially out wide where Romuald Boco and Gary McCabe comfortably got the better of the opposing full backs.

Inside, Joseph Ndo exerted enormous influence with a genuine flourish. The former Cameroon international may not get about the pitch the way he once did but his ability to change the pace and direction of the game when handed possession in a central area was wonderful to watch, unless that is you were a fan of the Dubliners or, much worse, one of the players who seemed incapable to curtailing his authority.

With Richie Ryan ruled out, like Blinkhorn, by suspension, Danny Ventre started alongside the African in the middle and the pair worked well together as Sligo kept and used the ball far more effectively than their opponents.

Billy Dennehy, Chris Turner and Stephen Bradley were amongst the other Shamrock Rovers players to manage attempts on goal but Sligo’s were more numerous and generally of higher quality with Boco the first to go close when he turned Ndo’s corner from the right onto the crossbar with a powerful header.

The nearest the league champions actually came to scoring was 15 minutes from the end of normal time when Twigg fed Thomas Stewart down the left-hand side of the box and the striker fired low across the face of goal past Kelly and to the feet of Gavin Peers.

Having contributed fairly spectacularly to one of Manchester United’s goals when playing for a League selection here in August, the centre back might have been a little nervous about being landed with possession while inside the six-yard box and moving towards his own goal line.

However, somehow he squeezed the ball low between his own goalkeeper and the left-hand post, something that, if fully intended, might just be the coolest piece of defending witnessed at this stadium for a very long time.

All across the back, though, Sligo were impressive and on more than one occasion it seemed Peers or one of his fellow defenders might have to do what those in front of them seemingly could not, by getting forward and grabbing a goal, most likely from a set-piece.

Peers, indeed, went close with a header just prior to half-time but not as close as Doyle with a shot on the turn in the second half when he might perhaps have set up a better placed team-mate, or Alan Keane, moments after Stephen Bradley had received a second yellow card for a clumsy, tired looking challenge on the right back, with nine minutes of extra time remaining.

By then, half a dozen or more players looked dead on their feet and O’Neill’s men, who had perhaps looked a little worn out from the start, seemed capable of little more than hanging on desperately for penalties while looking to grab something against the run of play by launching the ball forward.

The sending off of Bradley, though, necessitated a reshuffle with Dessie Baker, on as a second-half substitute hauled off again so that O’Neill could send on a defender: a slightly ignominious end to a remarkable League of Ireland career.

Through the nine minutes plus two for stoppages that remained, Sligo desperately sought to lift themselves and grab the goal they required to avoid what would ordinarily be regarded as the lottery of a penalty shoot-out but aside from Keane’s shot, which was deflected just off target and into the side-netting, they couldn’t manage a single serious attempt on goal.

And so it seemed possible that, as Cook put it later, “these things are written”, and that the Dubliners might clinch their double on penalties, falling over the finish line in this competition after having dragged themselves to the podium in the league.

With Baker and Bradley gone, though, they were perhaps slightly handicapped from the outset of a shoot-out in which fatigue clearly had the potential to be a factor for both sides.

Still, there was no allowing for what was to follow.

Doyle calmly converted low to his right to get the ball rolling before Kelly swung into action. Twigg’s left-footed attempt wasn’t great but it still required a decent save while the stops from Flynn and Turner were really top drawer.

In the meantime, Keane had his penalty stopped by Mannus and Conor O’Grady missed completely.

Gary McCabe then heightened the growing sense of anticipation in the Sligo end of the ground by powering his spot kick firmly into the top right corner before Kelly somehow completed his run, stopping Paddy Kavanagh’s effort with a trailing foot before beckoning his team-mates to follow him towards the corner flag to join him in celebration.

A strong sense of relief always permeates such moments of victory but few goalkeepers can have ever been mobbed by his team-mates with quite the unrestrained joy that Kelly’s team-mates displayed during the moments that followed. And it’s hard to imagine how any could have deserved the adulation more.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Mannus; Rice, Flynn, Sives, Stevens; Chambers (Baker, 68 mins (Price, 112 mins), Turner, Bradley, Dennehy; Twigg, Stewart (Kavanagh, 102 mins).

SLIGO ROVERS: Kelly; Keane, Peers, Lauchlan, Davoran; Boco, Ventre (O'Grady, 117 mins), Ndo, McCabe; Doyle, Russell.

Referee: T Connolly(Dublin).