Campbell teaches the Shelbourne forwards

IT was one of those nights when nothing much seemed to go according to the plan. Over at Richmond Park Ricky O'Flaherty was having to save rather than score a penalty, while here at Tolka Park his old team mate, Dave Campbell, was showing the strikers how to do their work. Thank goodness somebody took the time to.

His headed goal off a Pascal Vaudequin free kick in the 55th minute gave Shelbourne the three points that, on balance, they deserved but Damien Richardson will hope that the sort of injury problems that necessitated throwing a couple of his most talented players into unfamiliar roles have cleared up by the time his side set off for Cork next week.

With Mick Neville employed in front of three other central defenders and Dave Tilson moved inside to leave the flanks clear for the full backs, there were a few confused gazes at the bench through the opening phase, while UCD's densely populated midfield restricted the opportunities for Vaudequin and Declan Geoghegan to push forward in support of their strikers.

As a result, the home side enjoyed the bulk of the possession but repeatedly failed to capitalise on the speed with which they moved the ball out of defence and, while Pat Morley, Stephen Geoghegan and Neville all went close to extending the margin.

UCD had a couple of clear cut chances of their own to take something away from the match.

Morley, in particular, really should have found the net just before the break when Vaudequin set him up nicely but his terribly sliced shot sparked a scramble in which nobody could connect properly prior to Seamus Kelly pouncing on the loose ball.

In the centre, Tony Sheridan for the hosts and Jason Colwell both did well, but through the second half, it was the home side's continuing inability to carry the ball out wide that seemed to hinder them most, while their visitors were seeing enough of the ball to remain a threat to the end.

Darren O'Brien might have done better on one or two occasions, although given the number of defenders around him, he probably needed to be picking up the ball closer to goal to have a serious chance of scoring and in the end, his side's best chance fell to Robert Griffin, who was quick to move in after Pat Scully's slip in the 70th minute but careless with the shot, which went straight to Alan Gough.