Campbell comes to the rescue in Cup thriller

Forget Sky and their Dream Team, RTE had the week's football drama live from Richmond Park last night. This top-of-the-table Cup clash between two fierce Dublin rivals might have been a slow starter, but once it got going it produced the sort of plot that only the most imaginative of scriptwriters could sit down and dream up.

Twice Shelbourne, the winners of the Harp Lager FAI Cup for the past two years, led due to stunning goals. Twice St Patrick's drew level thanks to poor defending. Along the way the home side had a goal disallowed, while the visitors were denied one when several of their players insisted the ball had crossed the line.

Afterwards St Patrick's manager Pat Dolan marvelled at how his side had failed to win the game, while Shelbourne's Damien Richardson, much less good-naturedly, questioned the influence which referee Hugh Byrne had had on events.

Richardson was primarily bemoaning Byrne's failure to give offside when, with a couple of minutes remaining, Paul Campbell raced down the right before driving a sweetly-hit drive low across the face of the goal and into the bottom left corner of the Shelbourne net.

"At this level I expect professionalism from my lads, Pat expects it from his, and we both have the right to expect it from the referee. You simply can't afford to have officials ball-watching," he fumed, to a group of journalists who were not entirely convinced that the referee hadn't actually been correct. Shelbourne had been robbed was his general message.

Shelbourne's goals were, without doubt, outstanding. Liam Kelly, who had a tremendous first half, produced one of the strikes of the season in the 33rd minute when, after Colin Hawkins failed to clear Mark Rutherford's cross and Stephen Geoghegan squared the ball, the 22-year-old unleashed a drive from 25 yards that sailed into the top left corner.

Rutherford was again the instigator for the second goal. His cross found Geoghegan in blissful solitude some eight yards out, from where Geoghegan directed his header to perfection. It's no wonder that, no matter how well anybody else plays when he's injured, as soon as he can walk again they just can't keep him out of the team.

In between the two goals, however, St Patrick's got one of their own when Eddie Gormley's 50thminute corner from the right curled through the crowd untouched and into the net. There followed a frantic spell during which the hosts should have got a second and would have had Alan Gough not reacted with remarkable speed to Ian Gilzean's shot from 10 yards.

In midfield, it was St Patrick's who were increasingly winning the battle, with Eddie Gormley and Trevor Croly getting, despite a fine showing by Pat Fenlon, the better of it. They provided plenty of ball in the direction of Leon Braithewaite whose speed was a constant thorn in the side of Dave Smith.

Early on, it had been the Englishman's work and Gilzean's flick which had set up Thomas Morgan with a wonderful chance to score from close range. However, in the closing stages, when Gormley robbed Baker to feed Braithwaite in an equally good position, he was unsure with the finish. It seemed then that time might run out for his side.

Burke, though, was on hand to push Campbell through just three minutes later. The flag stayed down and his finish was good. After that, as they say, it was all over, bar the shouting.