- Gareth O'Reilly
- Sat, Jul 27 2013
Shelbourne came away from the Belfield Bowl on Friday night after securing a hard fought 2-1 win over UCD in a game that was marred by two controversial red cards for UCD players.
The two red cards occurred after UCD had taken the lead through a cracking strike from Craig Walsh before Mark Langtry and James Kavanagh were dismissed for alleged violent conduct.
A quiet start by both teams took a lengthy period of time to spark into life as the only action to report in the opening ten minutes was wild shots by Dean Kelly and Lee Murtagh neither of which troubled Mark McGinley.
It took nearly seventeen minutes for there to be something of note to write about and when it came it was truly special. Craig Walsh received the ball about twenty five yards out and with nothing else on he decided he would try his luck. The result was one of the best goals the UCD Bowl has ever seen.
Walsh smashed his effort with the outside of his foot straight into the top corner of the Shelbourne net. The shot was hit with such venom it hit the back of the net before bouncing back out again as Walsh turned around to his teammates with a big smile on his face.
Ten minutes later UCD had a chance to go further in front as a free kick was awarded 30 yards from goal. The ball was delivered goal wards narrowly missing Dean Clarke. The ball was then redelivered by Mark Langtry to Hugh Douglas who failed to make the connection needed on a bicycle kick attempt.
With just five minutes to go till half time the game then turned ugly as Mark Langtry appeared to throw an elbow in the direction of Adam Hanlon. The referee then consulted with his assistant before issuing a straight red card to Langtry. Much to the immediate anger of the UCD players as they immediately rushed to argue with referee Sean Grant.
To make matters worse for Martin Russell and his UCD players then conceded just one minute before the half time whistle was due to sound. It was Sean Brennan who got it as he coolly placed the ball into the top corner from just inside the box after the home defence was found wanting allowing Brennan to get in behind them.
Things went from bad to worse to extremely bad for UCD between the 53rd and the 55th minute. First they went behind for the first time in the match as Dean Kelly scored a header from six yards out. The goal came after man of the match Adam Hanlon beat Sean Russell on the right hand flank before delivering a peach of a ball to the head of Kelly.
Just two minutes later some UCD fans would have been excused for wanting the ground to swallow them up as once again the assistant referee waved his flag before instructing Sean Grant to once again send off a man in blue. This time it was James Kavanagh who was to be sent to join Mark Langtry for an early bath.
Kavanagh was adjudged to have kicked out at one of the Shels players off the ball. Martin Russell was convinced that the referee had made a poor call and that it had destroyed the game as a contest. The red card forced the UCD boss to take off his lone front man in Dean Clarke meaning that it was always going to be highly unlikely that UCD would be able to get back into the game.
The game struggled to regain any sort of spark after the second dismissal as Shels used their two man advantage smartly. As the game neared the closing stages UCD made the change to an unconventional 3-3-2 formation in an attempt to salvage a point but Shels showed the composure and maturity that was needed to lift them over the line.
The result means that for the first time in months Shels find themselves off the bottom of the table with UCD slipping to third from bottom. The game failed to live up to much of its hype thanks to the two red cards. Martin Russell after the game avoided saying anything that could land him in trouble but admitted that it was very unusual for the linesman to send two players off.
UCD: Mark McGinley, Gareth Matthews, Hugh Douglas (Samir Belhout 60), David O’Connor, Mark Langtry; Craig Walsh (Cillian Morrison 71), Barry McCabe, James Kavanagh, Robbie Benson, Sean Russell; Dean Clarke (Thomas Boyle 57)
Subs Not Used: Conor O’Donnell, Gary Burke, Ayman Ben Mohamed, Tom O’Halloran,
Bookings: Douglas (23), McCabe (82)
Sent Off: Langtry (40), Kavanagh (55)
Shelbourne: Lee Murphy, Brian Shorthall (Rob Cornwall 89), Derek Doyle, Stephen Hurley, Adam O’Connor; Glenn Cronin, Sean Brennan, Lee Murtagh, Pat Flynn, Adam Hanlon; Dean Kelly (Darren Tinnelly 85),
Subs Not Used: Niall Burdon, Carl Walshe, Jamie McGlynn, Alex Prizeman, Jake Donnelly.
Bookings: Doyle (36)
Referee: Sean Grant.
Attendance: 602
Extratime Man Of The Match: Adam Hanlon (Shelbourne).
