Early goal paves way for Shels

Cork City 0, Shelbourne 2

An early Shels breakaway gave sharp centre-forward Jason Byrne the opportunity to fire them into a lead they never surrendered. And when Byrne took advantage of an unfortunate mistake by Cork’s Alan Bennett to snatch a second after 71 minutes there was no disputing the merits of their win.

Byrne was their goal-scoring hero but goalkeeper Steve Williams was their best player, as the talented former Welsh U21 international defied Cork’s best efforts with some brave defending.