Down to wire after Tolka stalemate

SO it’s all going to come down to 90 minutes at Turner’s Cross next Friday.

Last night’s scoreless draw between Cork City and Shelbourne means that, regardless of what happens between Derry City and St Pat’s today, the 2005 eircom league title will only be decided when north plays south in Cork on November 18. Start biting those nails now.

The other ramification of last night’s result is that with Cork two points clear at the top, the Leesiders can’t now finish level with Derry on points and, therefore, goal difference will not come into play.

A win for Derry today and they will be one point ahead, needing only a draw to lift the title at Turner’s Cross; a draw and they will be one point behind.

Even defeat at the hands of Pats would see them travelling to Cork with three points and the title to play for.

Last night was one of the those end of season ‘summer soccer’ occasions at Tolka Park when the wind carried such a bitter edge that you wouldn’t have minded joining the players on the pitch - at least for the warm-up.

After that, a tight, reasonably absorbing but often niggly first-half was not an experience for the faint-hearted, as Shelbourne dominated possession in the early stages before Cork came more into the game, with Neal Fenn’s link-up play a notable feature of their most threatening attacks.

With the Derry match a week away, Damien Richardson had decided not to risk the recovering John O’Flynn, so Roy O’Donovan continued up front alongside Fenn, with Colin O’Brien pushed out wide right, Joe Gamble and George O’Callaghan in the middle, and Billy Woods once more selected ahead of Liam Kearney on the left.

But it was the home side which came strongest out of the traps, Alan Moore’s left-footed curling shot extracting a fine save from Michael Devine after just three minutes. Otherwise, though Shels put together some promising moves, there was no real goal threat at either end until the game suddenly came alive after 20 minutes.

First, Shels’ Owen Heary did well to track and foil Joe Gamble after Fenn had put him through with a clever pass from a congested midfield. Then the fleet-footed Joseph Ndo embarked on a trademark run which took him past three Cork players and into the box before being stopped by Devine’s fine save. Immediately, the play swung to the other end, where Fenn set up O’Callaghan who made space on the edge of the box before firing just wide of Dean Delaney’s left-hand post. The first half ended with a fine Alan Bennett block stopping Gary O’Neill at one end and Roy O’Donovan blasting into the side-netting at theother.

George O’Callaghan was booked for a foul on Owen Heary, who had himself earlier been booked for dissent and, at various points in the game, referee Hancock had to intervene to prevent frustration and rising tempers getting out of hand.

Substitute Glen Crowe came into the action for Gary O’Neill just pass the hour mark, by which time Wes Hoolahan had begun to exercise a growing influence on the game for Shels, at one point conjuring space out of nothing on the endline before getting in the cross which Jason Byrne, at the second attempt, blasted over the bar.

For Cork, Roy O’Donovan might have done better when cutting inside and testing Delaney after being picked out with a fine cross-field ball from O’Callaghan. After Stuart Byrne had replaced Jim Crawford for Shels, Cork boss Richardson made his first move with just over 15 minutes to go, Liam Kearney coming on for Billy Woods and giving Cork a three-pronged attack when going forward.

Arguably the best chance of the game fell to O’Donovan on 81 minutes, when he ran onto Fenn’s pass after Dave Rogers had slipped. The Cork forward’s shot was well struck but Delaney got down well to make the save.

Three minutes later it was Michael Devine’s turn to take the honours, gathering a Jason Byrne strike from just outside the box after the Shels man had cut in from the right.

A George O’Callaghan header over the top from Liam Kearney’s corner was Cork’s last effort in normal time, and although the visitors applied most of the pressure in the closing stages, even with four minutes of added time, they were unable to get the goal which would have heaped all the pressure on Derry at the Brandywell today.

Instead, a win for Derry against Pats and the Foylesiders will only need a draw in Cork.

SHELBOURNE: Delaney, Heary, Rogers, Hawkins, Cahill, Moore, Crawford (S. Byrne 70), Hoolahan (Baker 83), Ndo, O’Neill (Crowe 64), J. Byrne.

CORK CITY: Devine, Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy, Gamble, O’Brien, O’Callaghan, Woods (Kearney 73), O’Donovan, Fenn (Behan 89).

Referee: Damien Hancock.