Duff's Shels stay top after last-gasp winner against Kenny's Pat's
Shelbourne manager Damien Duff, right, and St Patrick's Athletic manager Stephen Kenny. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Midway through the season, Shelbourne are top of the league; nurtured, nourished and sustained by Damien Duff.
The lead they’ve enjoyed since the start of the season was in danger of being ceded to champions Shamrock Rovers when Jake Mulraney’s free-kick cancelled out Seán Boyd’s fourth goal in four games but sub Evan Caffrey wriggled free to tuck home the winner in the last of six stoppage-time minutes.
Pre-match activities were dominated by the spotlight on managers, not just the two patrolling the touchlines. Stephen Kenny and Duff were once part of the Ireland set-up in 2020, although briefer than either of them envisaged.
Duff’s disdain for FAI machinations dimmed his appetite to become involved with the next generation, save for a cameo with the U15s, and he thought that peril was avoided by dealing directly with Kenny when the offer came as he was pointing the car home from his stint coaching at Celtic.
Both are infatuated by details but the methods of tutoring it soon diverged when they worked together. Failing to win any of the opening eight games may have contributed to the parting but Duff’s side would contest results were immaterial to his resignation.
That their last window contained the infamous Wembleygate incident was convenient for a scapegoat. While Duff agreed with the video and disagreed with the subsequent “urgent investigation” launched by the FAI, he was no longer prepared to work within the Kenny set-up. As he said four months later, “I know I’ve made the right decision and not one day has passed where I’ve regretted it.” He was too well raised to elaborate but this was one case where his detail wasn’t essential to decipher the push factor at play.
Duff didn’t indulge the reunion aspect in the run-up. Friday night’s LOI homecoming for Kenny was followed by the natural question about their relationship and he was more forthcoming about the infrequent interactions, the longest stretching to a chat in his Clonshaugh office after his son had faced Shels for Dundalk during pre-season.
Not so for Brian Kerr, once their mutual acquaintance but in Kenny’s case evidently a nemesis.
Duff didn’t filter his show of affection for the man whom he blossomed under at underage level when they met on the pitch. An undisputed Saints legend Kerr may be but it hasn’t lessened Kenny’s antipathy towards him.
Whereas the Greener didn’t make Friday’s oration against Derry, he was on Virgin Media duty, once again laying out the welcoming hand if Kenny was to somehow mellow.
Kenny was an animated presence on the sideline, particularly when falling behind so early but there was little for the bosses to clash on. Instead, Duff’s assistant Joey O’Brien and fitness coach Mauro Martins were inscribed on Rob Hennessy’s dense yellow card – with his goalkeeping coach Paul Skinner incurring a red amid the celebrations.
Duff’s insistence on a pressing game is matched by their diligence to fitness and it soon caught the hosts out when Mark Coyle dispossessed Kian Leavy playing out from the back on five minutes only for Boyd to scuff the loose ball straight at Danny Rogers.
The striker applied his clinical edge to a splendid flowing move on 14 minutes. From right-back through Coyle in midfield to the svelte Will Jarvis on the left, the Hull City loanee caressed a cross that allowed Boyd squeeze between Anto Breslin and Luke Turner to bury his close-range header.
Two rehearsed set-pieces by Pat’s, one corner too far for Ruairi Keating and a free-kick botched by Brandon Kavanagh, fed anxiety in the stands but the loss of Jarvis to a facial injury deprived Shels of their creative outlet.
John O’Sullivan should still have added a second early in the second half with a shot that Luke Turner blocked and the lively Liam Burt arrived a fraction late to angle his connection inside the post.
Whatever Kenny tried didn’t probe the diligent defence but the double substitution of Adam Nolan and Mason Melia ignited their attack.
When Saints won a free 30 yards out, up stepped Jake Mulraney to send his effort over the wall into the top corner, leaving Conor Kearns without time to dive.
His only goal this season was in this fixture in March. Unfortunately for him, the same outcome materialised.
A draw looked ominous until two of Duff’s subs, Dean Williams and Tyreke Wilson, combined on the left to square for another in Caffrey. He shimmied one way to find the space to tuck his left-footer through a thicket of players into the corner.
D Rogers; R McLaughlin (K Freeman 88), J Redmond, L Turner, A Breslin; J Lennon, C Forrester; B Kavanagh (M Melia 63), K Leavy (A Nolan 63), J Mulraney; R Keating (C Kavanagh 88).
C Kearns; S Gannon, P Barrett, G Molloy, K Ledwidge; M Coyle, J O’Sullivan (E Caffrey 59); W Jarvis (JJ Lunney 32), L Burt, M Smith (D Williams 74); S Boyd.
Rob Hennessy (Clare) Attendance: 4811.
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