Odubeko and Boyd guide Shelbourne to President's Cup glory against 10-man Drogheda

Drogheda goalkeeper Luke Dennison was sent off eight minutes into the second half for a handball outside the box.

FROM MICHAEL D TO YOU: President of Ireland Michael D Higgins and FAI President Paul Cooke, left, present the FAI President's Cup to Shelbourne captain Mark Coyle. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

President's Cup: Shelbourne 2 (Mipo Odubeko 28, Seán Boyd 34') Drogheda 0

When the emotion was stripped out of Shelbourne’s epic title win last year, the stark truth was they lacked firepower.

Damien Duff’s side just about averaged a goal per game, bagging 40 over 36 matches, most of them sealing single-goal marginal wins.

You must trace back to Drogheda United’s 2007 triumph for the champions to register such a meagre return but their tally of 48 was achieved over a campaign featuring three fewer games.

Allied to Shels’ mean defensive record, it indicates the regimental, rather than negative, approach Duff adopted in constructing a team that dethroned five-in-a-row chasing Shamrock Rovers.

That formula is unlikely to deliver a second successive crown, prompting Duff’s to address the deficit. His mission over pre-season was to target and secure a frontman capable of not just reaching double figures but tucking well into them.

Seán Boyd was the one player who hit the 10-goal threshold in their golden year and the Reds hierarchy rightly rebuffed a derisory five-figure bid from Scottish Premier Division side St Mirren to afford him a long-term striker.

Duff’s capture of Mipo Odubeko, at the second attempt, could have been perceived as providing competition to Boyd but in this curtain raiser for the title defence beginning next week, the manager accommodated the pair by reverting to a traditional 4-4-2 formation seldom seen in the modern era.

So far, so good with the experiment. Albeit lapses by FAI Cup winners Drogheda United from a couple of corners eased their path, both Odubeko and Boyd scored six minutes apart in the first-half to maintain the groundswell of optimism around Tolka Park.

Their expanded capacity of 5,500 will be occupied in full for the visit of Derry City next Friday but attracting 80% of that for what’s officially a friendly underlines the momentum behind Shels.

They were rarely threatened here, any chance of a Drogs comeback scotched by goalkeeper Luke Dennison getting himself sent off eight minutes into the second half for a handball outside the box.

Drogheda’s Cup success, coupled with investment from American owners Trivela, means they became the final Premier Division team to upgrade into a full-time set-up. Fitness wasn’t an issue here, rather a lack of cohesion among a team full of fresh faces, a plethora making their debuts on loan from abroad.

Josh Thomas was one to move from Swansea City and didn’t display the sharpness so apparent in the performances of Douglas James Taylor sitting in the stand injured.

Steve Zishim Bawa was the other newcomer deployed up front and compounding his failure to free Thomas when a reply was essential, his lunge on Sam Bone just before the break should have incurred a red. Instead it was a yellow brandished, yet only delaying to the other side of half-time their reduction to 10 men.

Shels showed them the value of being clinical. Some of Odubeko’s petulance earned him an early booking from a fussy referee Paul Norton but moments later he was celebrating. Ali Coote’s 28th-minute free kick was nodded on by Boyd for the former West Ham striker to flick the ball home from close range.

Drogheda didn’t heed the danger again from Coote’s next corner from the same side. This time, he squirted his delivery along the deck for Boyd to fire his first-time shot into the bottom corner from 10 yards.

Trouble was brewing once Dennison dashed out of his box to thwart Odubeko, his handling of the striker’s shot leading him to remove his gloves and head to the dressing-room before Norton had the red taken from his back pocket.

Substitute Jack Brady used his first touch to bat away Paddy Barrett’s free-kick from the edge of the area but Duff’s only request as the game fizzled out was to retain possession. They’ve a second trophy in four months to boast for their efforts.

SHELBORNE: C Kearns; S Gannon, P Barrett, S Bone, K Ledwidge, S Griffin; A Coote (E Chapman 63), K McInroy (E Caffrey 71), M Coyle (JJ Lunney 63): H Wood (R O’Kane 73); S Boyd, M Odubeko (R Tulloch 63).

DROGHEDA UTD: L Dennison; A Quinn (G Cooper HT), C Keeley, A Harper Bailey; O Lambe, S Farrell (L Heeney 64), R Brennan (P Doyle 70), C Kane; D Markey, J Thomas; S Zishim Bawa (T Oluwa 64).

Referee: Paul Norton (Dublin) 

Attendance: 4,584.