Shelbourne dismantle a depleted Limerick

Their priority this season may be the championship, but when it come to the Harp Lager FAI Cup, Shelbourne, it seems, simply can't help themselves. It has been nearly three years since the Dubliners lost in this competition and, given the way they appear to save their best for it, it's easy to see why.

Severely tested by these opponents in the League Cup earlier in the season - they won the game, but largely because of their superior fitness - Shelbourne this time dismantled the first division outfit. While they scored four, their tally might have been double that.

Up front, Mark Rutherford, Tony Sheridan and Liam Kelly had too much pace and guile for a badly depleted Limerick defence. Elsewhere, there was little more of a contest: Pat Fenlon assumed control in the centre and Tony McCarthy and Pat Scully coped so comfortably behind him that, aside from picking the ball out of the net in the 65th minute, Alan Gough had next to nothing to do.

Indeed, Damien Richardson's assessment that this had been a polished and professional display raised no quibbles from his opposite number. "They were very good and we were very bad, and that's a recipe for disaster," conceded a still upbeat Dave Connell.

Like Richardson, Connell's priorities lie elsewhere. But the Limerick boss must still have been surprised to see the gap between the top of the premier division and the top end of the first so cruelly exposed. It was, he remarked, all part of the learning process, but if Connell's side do win promotion, the chief lesson derived from yesterday's encounter will be that the difficulties being experienced by Kilkenny and Drogheda await unless his panel is strengthened significantly.

To be fair, the visitors were missing a number of important players, while others, including Jason O'Connor and Albert Finnan, only started after receiving pain-killing injections. Thus, while they had dominated the early exchanges of the League Cup encounter, they found themselves under pressure almost immediately this time, with Rutherford and Sheridan darting about on the wings while Dessie Baker and the equally impressive Liam Kelly harried Finnan and Anthony Tobin in the centre.

For almost 25 minutes their sheer determination not to fall behind seemed to be enough. But, when the bubble finally burst, courtesy of Rutherford's 15-yard drive from the left, any hopes they might have harboured of an upset were destroyed.

Had they had time to regroup after the opener, perhaps things might have been different. But straight from the restart Limerick lost possession and, after Gough had fed Sheridan down the right, the midfielder pushed it forward quickly to Kelly who gave his marker the slip before beating Hickey from close range.

Six minutes later Sheridan, having a particularly productive day out on the right, kicked off the move that led to the third with a wonderful through-ball for Fenlon. The former Rovers man over-hit his pass out to the left, but Rutherford did well to bring it down before crossing to the far post from where Fenlon's header would surely have crossed the line even if Baker hadn't decided to help it on.

Though Connell managed to steady the ship at the interval, the game was, in effect, over. During the concluding 45 minutes, Limerick, with Howie King on for O'Connor, probed forward a little more effectively, but at one point, when a desperately weak shot bobbled harmlessly into the arms of the waiting Gough, there was a good deal of derisive laughter from the home side's support.

Rutherford, later to named the man of the match, made it 4-0 with more than a half hour to play. This time Sheridan misplaced a cross, which then took a deflection off a defender before the winger buried it off the right upright from the edge of the area. Thereafter, there were spells when the entire thing had the air of a turkey shoot about it. Hickey's perseverance, though, along with the inaccuracy of Fenlon, Kelly and Derek Muir, helped to save defeat from becoming humiliation.

With 25 minutes remaining, the visitors did get some consolation when Declan Casey's free from the right reached Paul O'Donnell at the far post from where the former Fairview Rangers man tapped home. It was no less than Connell's side deserved for their relentless toil on the afternoon, but, given the clear supremacy of the holders throughout, anything more and they would have been flattered.

Shelbourne: Gough; Costello, McCarthy, Scully, Neville; Sheridan, Fenlon, Campbell, Rutherford; Baker, Kelly. Subs: Fitzgerald for Campbell (38 mins), Smith for Neville (78 mins), Muir for Kelly (84 mins).

Limerick: Hickey; Hanrahan, Tobin, Finnan, Casey; Purcell, G Ryan, Byrne, B Ryan; Browne, O'Connor. Subs: King for O'Connor (38 mins), O'Donnell for Purcell (53 mins), Nolan for Finnan (62 mins). Referee: A O'Regan (Cork).