Holders toil but get their just reward

WHO would have thought it? A relatively bloodless win in a Cup quarter final by visitors to the Carlisle Grounds. As with the last round, the holders completed the line up for the next round with the fourth 1-0 win of the quarter finals. It would seem safe to venture that this was by far the easiest of those wins.

Shelbourne took the game by the scruff of the neck early on, went ahead, lapsed, yet retained their grip on the game until the end. A game and gutsy Bray hadn't the wherewithal to retrieve the tie, which gradually meandered to a tame, anti climactic conclusion.

Everything had been set fair for a grand old tussle. A brilliant, pristine pitch has long since turned to dust old criticisms of a "cabbage patch" from these quarters, and a 4,000 crowd on a still day provided a perfect backdrop.

The vocal Bray contingent, amongst the most good humoured and wittiest around, were supplemented by a saxophonist and trumpeter. Yet even the music died long before the end.

The bottom line of this tie was that Shelbourne failed to kill off the contest, while Bray simply weren't good enough to trouble them unduly.

It was a point Pat Devlin readily accepted afterwards. "To be fair, the better side won," he said. "We have no complaints. We never looked like penetrating at all, which is disappointing."

The day's proceedings, graced by the new floodlights at the Carlisle Grounds, showed what this progressive club is capable of. The shame is that as they get their act together off the pitch, they're going down on it.

Devlin has some good long term prospects in a side containing four teenagers and boasting an average age of 23. On the day, that might have worked against them. Reflecting on their stage fright, Devlin said: "I don't think they realise what they've missed out on.

His counterpart, a slightly frustrated Damien Richardson, reckoned Shelbourne were the authors of their own difficulties.

"We opened up brightly with one and two touch football and made loads of chances. Then we caused our own frustration. The game died a death and I died a death. We made a simple issue very difficult."

Had Shelbourne finished, instead of beginning, the game the way they did, it would have left a better after taste. The holders quietened the crowd by controlling the exchanges from the off, outwitting and out passing the home side.

Tony Sheridan exploited the space between the home defence and midfield in typical style. The incomparable pairing of Pat Morley and Stephen Geoghegan were lively, and the team also exploited the flanks well with Dessie Baker looking much more at home.

Shelbourne made an imposing start. Chances came early and regularly. The excellent Dave Campbell glanced a deep, pin point Sheridan corner just wide of the far post after three minutes. Sheridan and Morley combined to release Mark Rutherford for a shot which went fractionally wide.

Anthony `Bo' McKeever, Bray's token veteran, and the impressive Jody Lynch had to be continually alert, as when Lynch intervened to cut out a low Dessie Baker cross to deny a certain Morley goal. But the inevitable happened from the ensuing corner.

Sheridan again delivered it deep, and Pat Scully's return header from beyond the far post saw Morley score his 16th goal of the season with a well timed jump for yet another headed strike.

It looked for all the world like we would get a repeat of Shelbourne's 4-0 win here in October. With a bit more composure it would have been.

Things started to go off the boil when two Rutherford crosses eluded the incoming Morley; Baker failed to convert one at the far post, while Lynch cleared the other.

Penned into their own half, Bray only broke free with occasional long balls. A few half chances came and went, Alan Gough sustaining some rough treatment when bravely coming a long way to deny Richie Parsons and Robbie Coyle. Parsons shot wide from a difficult angle when released by Coyle.

The second half was a poor imitation of the first. Shelbourne created the better chances, albeit fit fully. Morley, slightly overstretched, headed straight at John Walsh while the lively Baker tested Walsh from a variety of long range angles on three occasions.

The back four, often the unsung heroes of the slick Shelbourne machine, remained error free. Mick Neville was a steadying hand at right back; Pat Scully, as usual, swept up plenty; Campbell was the most imposing and won everything that came his way, while Declan Geoghegan read everything in his own, inimitable effortless way.

But this was a Cup quarter final. Devlin, typically, kept reshuffling. Richardson, typically, didn't jeopardise things. The large crowd waited for the token rally from Bray, and waited, and waited. It never came.