Sporting Fingal progress to playoff final
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
Shelbourne bid farewell to top-fight football for yet another season against a Sporting Fingal side whose aim to fight it out with the big boys looks to be gaining more weight by the hour. Two marvellous goals here at Tolka Park looked more akin to the forward play of the best in the Premier Division than a side fighting for promotion.
Not surprisingly the game started off rather tentatively. In the circumstances both teams seemed happy to ease themselves into this do or die bout, so to speak.
Sporting soaked up plenty early on and after ten minutes broke forward themselves. Good exchange play between Colm James and Conan Byrne eventually allowed the former to take Fingal’s first shot in anger but the result went well over Delaney’s bar.
Shelbourne did enjoy a lot of the early possession but while their movement was good the first touch in the final third was letting them down and it wasn’t until the 16th minute that they posed a real threat to Darren Quigley’s goal. Derek Doyle’s looping cross was met with a tame effort by McAllister but that allowed Robbie Hedderman to sneak in with the left peg. The curling shot never troubled Quigley and he smothered easily.
Quigley’s own troubles lie deeper than any cut throat play-off game can attain to, and the on-loan Derry City keeper awaits his own future with no small degree of uncertainty after it was revealed that he was one of the Candystripes’ players with a dual contract. A fine performance on the night from the number one put to bed any doubts over his current state of mind. From the keeper out, Sporting slowly began to assert themselves and showed exactly why they are beginning to make continuing movement in the right direction. Eamonn Zayed was beginning to make his presence felt and started to cause a number of problems for the Shels defence. After 20 minutes he moved forward from the middle of the park before shooting from distance. With the shot blocked, Conan Byrne raced onto the loose ball before Damien Brennan slid in to avert the danger.
Winning the battle in midfield, with Colm James forever probing, dropping deep and pushing forward, Fingal finally broke the dead-lock in the 39th minute. Gary O’Neill seized control on the right and after cutting inside Brennan his pin-point cross found Zayed in an acre of space. The finish, first time was splendid. It was met by silence from the home crowd but all who saw it couldn‘t but have been impressed by a sublime sequence of play.
With barely time to compose themselves, Shelbourne found their defence breached again two minutes later. Brian Gannon’s hopeful ball up-field caught Alan Keely on the back foot. The centre-half’s slip allowed Shaun Williams to steal a march on goal and from 20 yards his strike beat Dean Delaney at his near post. Two-nil and the half-time whistle couldn’t come soon enough for the Drumcondra outfit.
With the score-line speaking for itself any team talk was barely needed by Dermot Keely. The Reds announced themselves after the break with a flurry of endeavour, endeavour that was not met with a cut throat opportunity and the first real chance of the second half came Fingal’s way in the 56th. Zayed, with some quick feet found Gary O’Neill who shot to Delaney’s left and wide. Three minutes later, with a fervent support behind them, Shelbourne pushed up. Derek Doyle did well to play in Anto Flood but the final shot lacked any real conviction and ended up well over the crossbar. Flood was chasing everything and in the 64th minute did brilliantly to fool Stephen Paisley on the right when it looked as if he was about to let the ball go out for a throw-in. He cut inside and played in a fine cross that Fingal eventually scrambled to safety. Flood’s involvement was not to end there.
With the Reds throwing everything they had at Sporting their efforts were rewarded after 73 minutes when David Cassidy was taken down in the box. Up stepped David McAllister. The penalty looked as if it had been brilliantly saved by Darren Quigley but the spin he had put on the ball with the shot stop allowed it to rise up and over him. It trickled in and suddenly all was to play for. Floods enthusiasm eventually got the better of him and in the resultant struggle to get the ball back to re-start the match he was adjudged to have impeded all too vehemently with the Fingal stopper. Referee Tom Connolly brandished Flood with his second yellow of the night and the striker’s evening ended there. His presence would barely have mattered. Fingal showed at stages that they have the class to give any Premier Division side a game of it. They looked composed and assured here at Tolka where a lesser side might have buckled under the pressure and charged atmosphere of the home support. They got the last real chance of the game in the 85th minute when Shaun Williams forced Dean Delaney into a fine save.
Shelbourne: Dean Delaney, Michael Synnott, Robbie Heddermen, Alan Keeley (Stephen Quigley 56‘), Damien Brennan, Mark O’Brien (Peter Hynes 56‘), Derek Doyle, David Cassidy (Colin O‘Brien 86‘), David McAllister, Anthony Flood, Ritchie Baker
Sporting Fingal: Daren Quigley, Brian Gannon, Lorcan Fitzgerald, Shaun Williams, Shaun Maher, Stephen Paisley, Conan Byrne, Eamonn Zayed, Gary O’Neill ( Daniel Corcoran 93‘), Colm James, Shane McFaul
Referee: Tom Connolly
Attendance: 1,632
Man of the Match: Colm James
Not surprisingly the game started off rather tentatively. In the circumstances both teams seemed happy to ease themselves into this do or die bout, so to speak.
Sporting soaked up plenty early on and after ten minutes broke forward themselves. Good exchange play between Colm James and Conan Byrne eventually allowed the former to take Fingal’s first shot in anger but the result went well over Delaney’s bar.
Shelbourne did enjoy a lot of the early possession but while their movement was good the first touch in the final third was letting them down and it wasn’t until the 16th minute that they posed a real threat to Darren Quigley’s goal. Derek Doyle’s looping cross was met with a tame effort by McAllister but that allowed Robbie Hedderman to sneak in with the left peg. The curling shot never troubled Quigley and he smothered easily.
Quigley’s own troubles lie deeper than any cut throat play-off game can attain to, and the on-loan Derry City keeper awaits his own future with no small degree of uncertainty after it was revealed that he was one of the Candystripes’ players with a dual contract. A fine performance on the night from the number one put to bed any doubts over his current state of mind. From the keeper out, Sporting slowly began to assert themselves and showed exactly why they are beginning to make continuing movement in the right direction. Eamonn Zayed was beginning to make his presence felt and started to cause a number of problems for the Shels defence. After 20 minutes he moved forward from the middle of the park before shooting from distance. With the shot blocked, Conan Byrne raced onto the loose ball before Damien Brennan slid in to avert the danger.
Winning the battle in midfield, with Colm James forever probing, dropping deep and pushing forward, Fingal finally broke the dead-lock in the 39th minute. Gary O’Neill seized control on the right and after cutting inside Brennan his pin-point cross found Zayed in an acre of space. The finish, first time was splendid. It was met by silence from the home crowd but all who saw it couldn‘t but have been impressed by a sublime sequence of play.
With barely time to compose themselves, Shelbourne found their defence breached again two minutes later. Brian Gannon’s hopeful ball up-field caught Alan Keely on the back foot. The centre-half’s slip allowed Shaun Williams to steal a march on goal and from 20 yards his strike beat Dean Delaney at his near post. Two-nil and the half-time whistle couldn’t come soon enough for the Drumcondra outfit.
With the score-line speaking for itself any team talk was barely needed by Dermot Keely. The Reds announced themselves after the break with a flurry of endeavour, endeavour that was not met with a cut throat opportunity and the first real chance of the second half came Fingal’s way in the 56th. Zayed, with some quick feet found Gary O’Neill who shot to Delaney’s left and wide. Three minutes later, with a fervent support behind them, Shelbourne pushed up. Derek Doyle did well to play in Anto Flood but the final shot lacked any real conviction and ended up well over the crossbar. Flood was chasing everything and in the 64th minute did brilliantly to fool Stephen Paisley on the right when it looked as if he was about to let the ball go out for a throw-in. He cut inside and played in a fine cross that Fingal eventually scrambled to safety. Flood’s involvement was not to end there.
With the Reds throwing everything they had at Sporting their efforts were rewarded after 73 minutes when David Cassidy was taken down in the box. Up stepped David McAllister. The penalty looked as if it had been brilliantly saved by Darren Quigley but the spin he had put on the ball with the shot stop allowed it to rise up and over him. It trickled in and suddenly all was to play for. Floods enthusiasm eventually got the better of him and in the resultant struggle to get the ball back to re-start the match he was adjudged to have impeded all too vehemently with the Fingal stopper. Referee Tom Connolly brandished Flood with his second yellow of the night and the striker’s evening ended there. His presence would barely have mattered. Fingal showed at stages that they have the class to give any Premier Division side a game of it. They looked composed and assured here at Tolka where a lesser side might have buckled under the pressure and charged atmosphere of the home support. They got the last real chance of the game in the 85th minute when Shaun Williams forced Dean Delaney into a fine save.
Shelbourne: Dean Delaney, Michael Synnott, Robbie Heddermen, Alan Keeley (Stephen Quigley 56‘), Damien Brennan, Mark O’Brien (Peter Hynes 56‘), Derek Doyle, David Cassidy (Colin O‘Brien 86‘), David McAllister, Anthony Flood, Ritchie Baker
Sporting Fingal: Daren Quigley, Brian Gannon, Lorcan Fitzgerald, Shaun Williams, Shaun Maher, Stephen Paisley, Conan Byrne, Eamonn Zayed, Gary O’Neill ( Daniel Corcoran 93‘), Colm James, Shane McFaul
Referee: Tom Connolly
Attendance: 1,632
Man of the Match: Colm James
