Shels boss puts Palace mauling into context - 'We left it behind in earlier defeats'

Defeats to Shkëndija of North Macedonia and Kosovans FC Drita sting Joey O'Brien

Fri, 12 Dec, 2025 - 11:56

John Fallon

It wasn’t exhibitions meted out by Crystal Palace that halted Shelbourne’s march in Europe, admits Joey O’Brien.

The former English Premier League defender knows the Palace of today are of a different calibre to the version he faced.

The FA Cup champions showed why they’ve climbed to fourth in the Premier League table by sweeping past Shels in Thursday’s penultimate Conference League phase fixture, all the goals of a 3-0 cakewalk scored within 37 minutes.

Over 10,000 visited the temporary Tallaght home of the Reds and they were treated to a masterclass in one-touch passing by a Palace team thriving under Oliver Glasner. The biggest challenge to their progress isn’t the threat of any gem following Eberechi Eze out the door, but the platoon of suitors seeking their Austrian manager.

O’Brien didn’t sugarcoat the damage inflicted, dismissing the rustiness of one game since their season ending on November 1 as excuses. Palace, he asserted, are a better team than the Qarabag outfit they met in the Champions League over the summer.

“We didn’t want it getting too messy so the second half was about keeping the scoreline respectable – not something I like doing,” admitted the ex-Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United full-back.

“There are levels to football and Palace showed what level they're at operating at - way ahead of us.

“The window that they're shopping in – look at all their nationalities on the pitch from all across the world – is their way of the world.

“Palace can spend unbelievable amounts of money on players, recruit and hand-pick them for the formations.”

Despite that gulf, O’Brien winced at the nature of the goals, particularly the second from Eddie Nketiah and a third from Spaniard Yéremy Pino, who roamed through the centre to pick his spot.

“The second goal especially, we have a two versus one and it’s a poor header,” he lamented.

"For the third goal again, sometimes you can show these players too much respect and let a player walk away like that in the middle of the pitch. That’s unacceptable really.

“First touches are crucial and some of our giveaways were from that.

"Maybe that’s a bit harsh but when you walk through the middle of the pitch: for me, you just take the foul, call it a tactical foul. We should have done that but I was still proud of the lads in the second half.”

It was the fifth game of the league phase and the fifth game in which Shels failed to score. Even if that wasn’t expected against one of the competition favourites, the manager admits the regrets stretches back to earlier matches.

Defeats to Shkëndija of North Macedonia and Kosovans FC Drita sting. They sit in the bottom three of the 36-team table and O'Brien rues opportunities that might have placed them in the mix for a playoff in February.

“We’ll do a deep review after next week’s last game in Celje but we left it behind us in other matches,” O’Brien stated.

“There were certain games in which we were the better team and our outcome was never going to come down to how we did against Crystal Palace.”