Shels draw battle but win title war

St Patrick’s Athletic 0 Shelbourne 0

Eircom League champions for the second season in succession, Shelbourne drew the battle but won the war on a night when summer soccer ended in the icy grip of winter at Inchicore.

But for a contentious refereeing decision, Shelbourne could have taken all three points from a tense Dublin derby which ended in the scoreless draw that was still enough to render events in Cork academic.

Credit Shels with showing the character and staying power that meant they survived a late-season wobble of their own as well as the bracing challenge of a superb late Cork run.

But league football, as they say, is a marathon not a sprint and, after a season made even longer and already memorable by their wonderful European campaign, Shels and their manager Pat Fenlon deserved all the acclaim of their ecstatic fans last night, as captain Owen Heary lifted the glittering prize on the pitch at Richmond Park.

Cork City had come into their last game of the season as the league’s form side, amassing a staggering 29 points out of 33 in an 11-game unbeaten run featuring nine wins and two draws.

Shels, by contrast, had taken 10 points less over the same period, suggesting that they could yet snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

However, champions are made of stern stuff and this Shels side, battle-hardened on European fields, did enough in their final test to make sure that they did not have to rely on Bohemians for any favours on Leeside.

With Shels minus defensive bulwark Dave Rogers, out through suspension, Fenlon paired Jamie Harris and Stuart Byrne in the centre of the back four as the teams ran out to a Stadium of Light endeavouring to live up to its exalted name with flares, flags and fireworks marking the season’s end.

The early exchanges made it clear that Pats weren’t here in a supporting role, as the opening phase was hotly contested on a heavy pitch, with the home side forcing a couple of early corners against an understandably nervous defence. After Ollie Cahill had a less than clear-cut penalty shout against Colm Foley turned down at the other end, Shels supporters were soon cheered by the news that Bohemians had taken the lead in Cork and, as if responding to the raised volume from the visiting support, Alan Moore had his first sight of goal with a shot from 25 yards that was saved by Brendan Clarke.

Controversy was only minutes away, when Pats ‘keeper Clarke spilled a high cross after seemingly colliding with team mate Darragh Maguire, but even as Jason Byrne gleefully smacked home the loose ball for what would have been his 26th of the season, referee Paul McKeown was inexplicably signalling for a foul on the goalie.

On 38 minutes, Dave Crawley’s left -footed free from 30 yards brought out a fine full-length save from Clarke and, as the teams headed for the break, it was Shels who were still in command of the title race, if not a typically tough and tense Dublin derby.

Into the second period, Jim Crawford’s first minute booking suggested the game would take up where it had left off as physical contest but although team-mate Jamie Harris, and later Pats’ Keith Fahey, followed him into the book, a more composed Shels began moving the ball around with greater aplomb, stretching Pats with controlled, expansive moves. The longer the game went on, the more Shelbourne nerves were tested and the greater their fans’ desire for a goal to help put the matter beyond doubt.

At the end, the visiting fans were on the pitch mobbing a team and a manager who had made it two in a row. Shelbourne had passed their final test of character, won the title away from home and, once again, proved themselves worthy standard bearers for the eircom League in Europe.

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Clarke, Prenderville, Byrne, Donnelly, Maguire. Foley, Quigley, Fahy, Doyle, O’Keeffe (Smith 86) Dunne.

SHELBOURNE: Williams, Heary, Crawley, S Byrne, Harris, Crawford, Cahill, Moore, Hoolahan, Fitzpatrick, J Byrne.

Referee: P McKeown.