Bit O'Red causes both cheers and tears

SOCCER:THE PLACE has changed just a little bit since they were last here seven years ago but, as they did then against Deportivo La Coruna and Lille, Shelbourne showed they can still make life immensely difficult for more celebrated opponents on the Irish game's greatest stage.

Ultimately, there was no settling for the heroic draw yesterday as the cup was decided by penalty shoot-out in which Ciarán Kelly played a starring role for the second year in succession for the Bit O’Red, and Shelbourne for entirely unrelated reasons left for home nursing an obvious sense of grievance.

Barry Clancy still looked like a man who couldn’t quite comprehend why he had been sent off by Richie Winter after going down under what looked like an unfair challenge by John Russell deep inside the area.

Unlike some of his team-mates, he was upset rather than angry as he made his way out of the dressing rooms and towards the waiting team bus.

“I was just about to pull the trigger when I felt the contact and went down,” he said with the emotion still audible in his voice. “When I saw the red card I was just shocked. I thought he’d blown for a penalty and then I got up and saw the red card. I can’t explain it. I was just gutted, devastated.

“The first one down the wing,” he continued, “I’ve clipped him when maybe he would have been away. I can take a card for that but there’s no way the second one was a booking. I can’t believe the decision, it’s ruined the game.”

His manager agreed and having clearly started out with the intention of avoiding unnecessary controversy, Alan Mathews couldn’t help but spell out the way he felt about the referee’s impact on the game.

“I don’t want to bring the referee centre stage,” he said, “but I think that decision has cost us the final. With 11 men we would have had more of a stab at it and caused them a few more problems at the other end of the pitch.

“We took the lead, hit the crossbar and if Barry had got the shot away instead of being fouled then we could have been two up, but the referee has seen it differently and then the keeper’s made a couple of good saves and that’s what it’s boiled down to.

“Still, we’ve had a good season and the lads have given absolutely everything today, once they do that you can’t ask for anymore.”

His captain, David Cassidy, summed things up a little crisply. “I think that if we’d got a fair game then we might have won the cup,” he said, “but some of the decisions that were made out there today were laughable.”

In the Sligo camp there was some sympathy for the Dubliners even if it wasn’t universal. “Yeah, but Paisley could have gone in the second half for what was a very rash challenge,” said Paul Cook when asked if the sending off had been harsh.

“They’ll obviously be disappointed and we can understand that but we can’t determine what the referee does. Me? I was disappointed that he didn’t send another one of two off. If they’d been down to eight or nine we’d have had a better chance of beating them because we were disappointed that we were going forward without any real pace or purpose until then.”

In the end, the Rovers boss had good reason to be pleased for, while his team never quite hit their stride, Kelly picked up rather neatly where he left off against Shamrock Rovers 12 months ago.

“It’s just all the same as last year, It’s getting boring at this stage. He’s phenomenal at them,” continued Cook in relation to his second-choice goalkeeper and penalties. “He just seems to have a way of reading people’s body language. I’m not trying to be clever . . . Brendan’s been our goalkeeper all year but if you’ve got a lad who saves penalties the way he does then you’ve got to let him give it a go. I told Clarkey we might do it beforehand.

“Obviously he is a bit disappointed but he’s got a winner’s medal around his neck in there.”

Kelly himself seemed a little bemused by it all. “Ah, my annual five minutes of fame,” he said with a laugh as he emerged from doping control.

The 31-year-old had some sympathy for his team-mate but must have felt the manager’s call had been vindicated. Last week he saved a spot-kick in the final league game of the campaign against UCD and on Friday, he said, he had stopped five or six in a row in training.

“There was a lot of talk about it during the week but I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. Then, as the 90 minutes were nearly up the gaffer told me to make sure I was right. After that I went inside with Joseph . I had a quick look at myself in the mirror and said a few prayers and then went back out again.

“It was no different to the other lads then. They have to score theirs and I have to save mine. Thankfully it went well. I was actually disappointed not to save the first (of three), I’m not being smart but I really should have. After that, though, it went well.

“You see? Lightening does strike twice sometimes.”