MATCH REPORT

Result: Shels 2-0 City
Half-time: 1-0
Scorers: James Keddy, Richie Baker
City team: Devine, Horgan, O’Donoghue, Daly, Coughlan, O’Halloran, Cahill, Gaughan, Herrick, Morley, Mulligan, Subs: O’Brien for O’Donoghue, injured 35; O’Shea for Mulligan (40); Caulfield for O’Brien injured 45.
Report: Supreme Shelbourne marched triumphantly to outright leadership of the premier division on a night Cork City will hope to forget.
Shelbourne showed all the class that bought them the league title last season but their cause was helped by a Cork City side reduced to ten men after 45 minutes and having to deal with numerous injuries inside the opening half.
After initial tit for tat exchanges Cork’s misery started on 40 minutes with the dismissal of goalkeeper Michael Devine after the former Waterford United player handled outside his area from Richie Baker earning an immediate red card.
Devine’s replacement Alan O’Shea was given a less than flattering introduction to life as a premier division player with his first action on the pitch being to pick the ball out of the back of the net when James Keddy’s free kick ricocheted off the wall to give Shelbourne the lead.
Keddy’s opening strike compounded Devine’s folly as the home side capitalised fully and with Cork now facing a numerical disadvantage things began to look very cosy for the defending league champions as they began to exploit a visibly shook Cork team.
Shelbourne took their one goal cushion in at the interval and with a Cork team having an air of dismay surrounding them as they trudged in at the break one could not but feel that it would only be a matter of time before they furthered their advantage.
Twelve minutes after the resumption Richie Baker took the ball around O’Shea following a great pass from Richie Foran and all of a sudden Shelbourne began to look like the world beaters of last season.
But Cork should have scored themselves on 25 minutes when only the brilliant Shelbourne goal keeper Steve Williams kept the early stalemate in place.
With the gaol seemingly at his mercy, Fergus O’Donoghue, had his initial shot blocked by Shel’s defender Owen Heary and amazingly when the ball came back to Cork’s full back, his second attempt was saved by Williams who brilliantly recovered his composure to save yet again, this time from Steve Gaughan before danger was finally averted.
Cork’s nightmare first half was not made any easier when Fergus O’Donoghue was forced out of the game with a knee injury and to add further insult to injury his replacement, Colin O’Brien was also forced out of the action after injuring his ankle as Cork used up their full complement of substitutes with the first half still progressing.
Predictably, tempers began to fray in the second half as the ten man Cork City visibly tired prompting numerous incidents which climaxed into two altercations. Firstly a clash between Cork goalkeeper Alan O’Shea and Richie Foran almost led to an all out bust up and minutes later both teams squared up to each other again after a tussle between Shelbourne’s Avery John and Cork’s Mark Herrick with both benches also getting involved this time.
Shelbourne will care little for these indiscretions as they now sit proudly at the head of the table, but for Cork there could be more far reaching repercussions. Their game lacked any cohesion and with seemingly little or no communication between the players the only mystery is why Shelbourne didn’t win by an even greater margin.
Shelbourne’s opening goal was literally gifted them by Cork’s ill timed, ill advised and downright disastrous attempt to spring the off side trap, a ploy that has very nearly caught them out twice before they were finally punished.
Shelbourne, however, must get credit for the manner with which they capitalised fully on Cork’s obvious disadvantages to take the three points on offer and emphatically flash their obvious championship credentials.
Report: by Conor George, The Irish Examiner