League Preview: Shelbourne -v- Cabinteely

SHELBOURNE

Shelbourne continued their relentless march to the First Division title when they recorded another victory in the last series of games, this time a 2-1 home win against Cork City, and stretched their lead at the top of the table to 11 points.

Ian Morris’s side are the only unbeaten side across both divisions of the SSE Airtricity Leagues, and in fact they have not dropped any points since their 2-2 draw at home to Treaty Utd on April 30th, a full two months ago.

They have picked up the maximum 21 points from their last seven outings and dealt with most of their main challengers for the title in that seven- game run, defeating Galway United, UCD and Bray Wanderers, as well as lower half of the table sides such as Wexford and Cobh Ramblers.

They were pushed hard by the Leesiders in their last game when Cian Murphy levelled for Cork City just after the half time break, cancelling out Michael O’Connor’s 36th minute strike for the Reds.

They restored their lead seven minutes later however when O’Connor drove at the Cork defence before squaring the ball to Ryan Brennan who had the relatively easy task of slotting the ball past Cork keeper Mark McNulty.

Shelbourne’s domination of the First Division is also reflected in the leading goal scorers chart as they have two players in the top five, Ryan Brennan is on nine goals, one behind UCD’s Colm Whelan, while Michael O’Connor is on five goals.

Shels already beat Cabinteely by a 3-1 margin in Stradbrook back in April so they will be full of confidence when they take on Pat Devlin’s side again in Tolka Park this Friday night, and will be expecting to continue their amazing unbeaten run into the 14th series of games in the league.

CABINTEELY

Cabinteely’s season so far has been very much a mixed bag, recording some notable victories against strong sides such as Treaty United and Athlone Town but also losing some winnable games such as the 2-0 defeat to bottom of the table Wexford.

Overall, they have won six but lost seven matches so far this season and occupy a mid-table position on 18 points.

Their form coming into their clash with the league leaders is not great, having lost three of the last four games including last weekend’s 2-1 home defeat at the hands of UCD.

Pat Devlin’s side were boosted by the return of some fans for the game against UCD but they were silenced on the hour mark when the league’s top scorer Colm Whelan scored the lead goal. Cabo went further behind shortly after when UCD’s Liam Kerrigan beat goalkeeper Harry Halwax from close range and it was always going to be difficult for Cabinteely from there on to take anything from the game.

They did show their fighting spirit however when 82nd minute substitute Eoin McPhillips scored a consolation goal in the 90th minute but even though there was five minutes of additional time played they were unable to get an equaliser despite having an opportunity when Kevin Knight’s header from a corner resulted in a goal mouth scramble in the dying seconds of the match.

Referee: Oliver Moran

MATCH STATS

These two teams have been evenly matched in their eight clashes going back to October 2017, Cabinteely winning three, Shelbourne winning two with the points shared in the other three matches.

The match between the two sides in the 2021 season ended in a 3-1 win for Shelbourne in Stradbook on April 23rd.

BETTING

Shelbourne 2/7; Draw 7/2; Cabinteely 17/2.

PREDICTION

Shelbourne 3-0 Cabinteely

Shelbourne

Injured: Gerardo Bruna, Denzil Fernandez.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Cabinteely

Injured: Andy O’Brien, Adam Hayden.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.