League Report: Shelbourne 3 - 2 UCD

Patrick O'Connor reports from Tolka Park

The full house at Tolka Park on Friday night enjoyed a five-goal thriller as Shelbourne edged out a brave UCD.

The win leaves Shels in the box seat to claim fourth place and they will head to Drogheda next Friday night full of confidence that they can complete the task.

UCD put up a huge fight to their hosts however, especially as they had nothing at stake given that they are already doomed to automatic relegation to the First Division.

Shels dominated possession early on but were still rather pedestrian in their approach and did not cause any problems for UCD in the final third.

That all changed however in the 20^th minute when they took the lead through what looked like a soft penalty awarded to Jack Moylan. 

He went to ground after a tussle with UCD centre back Eanna Clancy and referee Paul McGlaughlin had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Moylan himself slotted the penalty kick to the relief of the home supporters and it remained at 1-0 up to the half time break.

The real drama unfolded in the second half however, starting with a Mikie Raggett equaliser for UCD in the 50^th minute.

Regular Shels netminder Conor Kearns had a bug prior to the match Harry Fisk came in for his debut but it’s one he will probably want to forget. He took a back pass but mistimed his kick to 

Paddy Barrett in the 50^th minute, albeit that the pitch was quite bobbly at this stage, and laid it on plate for Raggett to slide the ball home into an empty.

Damien Duff’s side regained the lead in the 60^th minute, courtesy of another Moylan penalty. 

This time Will Jarvis drove into the box and was clipped by a UCD defender and Moylan stepped up to fire the penalty past Fisk to make it 2-1.

Fisk was almost caught out with another mis kick immediately after but the students were unable to capitalise on the error, however they did produce the goal of the match moments later through substitute Danu Kinsella- Bishop.

Ciaran Behan, another substitute, floated a ball in from the right wing and Kinsella – Bishop executed a superb overhead kick into the top left corner of the net to level the scores.

There was no end to the drama however as Moylan restored the lead with another great goal in the 88^th minute. 

He trapped a long ball into the box, controlled it first time and had the composure to curl a shot past Kian Moore to make it 3-2.

Moylan was booked for removing his shirt in celebration, but one can hardly blame him for his enthusiasm as he scored a hat trick in Shelbourne’s last home game and departs the club for Lincoln City at the end of the season, a fitting end to a great spell at the Tolka Park club.

The results elsewhere were kind to Duff last night so all eyes will be on the final round of fixtures next weekend, with the Shelbourne trip to Drogheda United getting top billing on Friday night.

Shelbourne: Harry Fisk, Shane Griffin (Tyreke Wilson 64), Paddy Barrett, Gavin Molloy, JJ Lunney, Mark Coyle, Euclides Da Silva Cabral (Evan Caffrey 64), Harry Wood (Gerdi Arubi 89), Shane Farrell, Will Jarvis (Kameron Ledwidge 77), Jack Moylan

Subs not used. Conor Kearns, Jad Hadiki, Luke Byrne, JR Wilson, Andrew Quinn.

Booked: Jack Keaney (91), Adam Verdon (94).

UCD: Kian Moore; Evan Osam (Daniel Babb 93), Adam Wells, Eanna Clancy (Harvey O’Brien 46), Jack Keaney, Jesse Dempsey, Dara Keane, Daniel Norris (Ciaran Behan 64), Sean Brennan (Jake Doyle 75), Adam Verdon, Mikie Raggett (Danu Kinsella Bishop 75)

Subs not used: Lorcan Healy, Brendan Barr, Donal Higgins, Luke O Regan.

Booked: Jack Moylan (90)

Referee: Paul McGlaughlin

Extratime.com Player of the Match:   Jack Moylan (Shelbourne)

Attendance: 4,000 (estimate)