Shelbourne 2-0 Derry City

Shels shine in front of cameras

Shelbourne extended their unbeaten run to 10 games and went clear at the top of the table – for the start of the weekend , anyway - in the opening live TV game of the season. The Red’s netminder, Steve Williams, had little difficulty in keeping his third consecutive clean sheet (6 out of 10 for the season so far) against a Derry forward line that had only 3 attempts on goal and none of which even stretched him. The Candystripe’s manager, without suspended star striker Liam Coyle and following some poor recent form, brought his side to Dublin to consolidate and maybe eke out a draw. From a pragmatic point of view, Kevin Mahon, would not have been concerned with putting on a show for the cameras and set out his stall from the start, playing 5 across the back.

Having picked up a lot of injuries in Waterford last week, the Red’s were expected to show some changes. Deco Geoghegan came back in (he was left on the bench last week after arriving late , having earlier failed his driving test), while James Keddy made his comeback straight into the first team after a long layoff due to his cruciate injury. Paul Doolin got the nod in midfield ahead Dave Campbell, but the big surprise was the appearance of Stephen Geoghegan, making an unexpected early (painkiller-assisted) recovery from his injury. Van der Velden inexplicably continues to warm the bench, despite manager Keely’s publicly stated resolve to see Shels play a more open, passing game.

With the visitors determined to sit back and defend, the Red’s soon seized the ascendancy in midfield with Fenlon and Doolin calling the shots, while Ritchie Baker and Eoin Heary– both rumoured to be attracting cross channel Premiership interest – were looking dangerous down the right flank. Apart from a previous weak and harmless shot to the near post from Derry’s Eamon Doherty on the right-hand side, the game’s first real goal chance came on the seventh minute when Doolin and Geogho combined well to set up Garry Haylock. His sliding shot, however, brought off a good save from ‘keeper Platt who managed to block with his feet. The effervescent Heary and Baker continued to torment along the main stand side, and when after 21 minutes, the full back sent a long probing (and seemingly over-hit) pass into space toward the right-hand corner, any other player but U/21 international Ritchie would have given up the chase. Young Baker is not so easily beaten however, but having brilliantly retrieved the pass he was crudely upended by wing-back Hargan. Referee Aidan O’Regan – who otherwise had a sound game – amazingly failed to even show the yellow card when many felt the red might have been justified.

Despite failing to convert their supremacy into scores – Haylock was typically guilty again with a poor header after been set up with a perfect cross from Baker – the Real Reds stuck to their task. They got their just reward a minute before the half time thanks to a blunder from Platt. James Keddy had hoisted in the ball from a corner on the right. The Derry ‘keeper came out and rose unchallenged to take what should have been a handy catch. Somehow the ball slipped through his hands and dropped to the lurking Shel’s skipper, Pat Scully, on the back post, and he made no mistake in planting his header to the back of the net. to lead his side one up, into the dressing room for the break.

The second half was only 6 minutes old went the Reds sealed their win with the second goal. Again, it came from the right flank, when Heary threw a sideline touch ball to Geogho, received the return and proceeded to blaze his way past 2 defenders up the wing. He cut in when he reached the end line and drove in a low cross towards Garry Haylock in front of goal. This time the Red’s number nine could not miss ( “that never stopped him before”, thinks a cynical Red Bull ) and he contrived to tap in his second gifted goal of the season. With nothing to lose the visitors regrouped and changed to a more conventional 4-4-2 formation. The game opened up somewhat, with Shels starting to string together some fine passing movements. Following a fruitless Derry sally-forward, Ritchie Baker picked up a pass deep inside his own half and launched a blistering counter-attack run to the right of the Derry penalty area. He squared the ball to the unmarked Haylock to his left, who took all the time in world, before taking the harder option and blasting the ball left and wide. The fucking Stocking !!!

Stephen Geoghegan was stretchered off just after the hour when he seemed to go down on his injured ankle. His replacement, Dessie Baker, was involved in another good scoring chance for the Reds, this time building from the left-hand side. After combining well with Tommy Byrne – on for Keddy – Dessie switched the ball across to younger brother Ritchie, who in turn laid off the ball to Eoin Heary making another swashbuckling run up the right wing. His low cross was met with a diving header from midfield-maestro Nutsy Fenlon, which unluckily, was only inches over the bar.

Next stop, Morton Stadium in Santry next Saturday at 2:30pm, when the Real Red’s bandwagon will attempt to complete the first full round of eleven eircom league games, unbeaten.

Team : Williams; Heary, McCarthy, Scully, D Geoghegan; R Baker, Doolin (Campbell 57 mins), Fenlon , Keddy (T Byrne 80 mins); S Geoghegan (D Baker 62 mins), Haylock.

Comment : Fair play to Shels and eircom, who pulled out all the stops in promoting this game. Short of paying the punters to come in, not much more can be done to increase gates in the short term. Hopefully, a good percentage of the kiddies who presently get in for free, will continue to come along, spending money in the ground , dragging along their recalcitrant (but paying) elders, and in the long term becoming regular fans.

Red Bull '99