Conference League playoff, first leg: Shelbourne 3 (Wood pen 45+1, Odubeko 46, Caffrey 77) Linfield 1
On a sensational night for Irish clubs in Europe, Shelbourne knew that a 2-1 lead was not going to be enough to escape Windsor Park next Thursday and secure a place in the Uefa Conference League group stages.
Shels dominated 10-man Linfield in this playoff, that is worth over €3 million to the winners, before Matt Fitzpatrick was sent off in the 18th minute and, late on, they piled forward in search of that vital third goal.
Unsurprisingly, it was Harry Wood who steadied himself and let fly from 25 yards. His shot hit Harry East’s leg and the post before falling for substitute Evan Caffrey, who beat Kirk Millar to the rebound to score into an open net.
There is no guarantee that their two-goal lead will be enough in the second-leg, but one thing is for certain – the game in this country is entering new territory next week.
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Shamrock Rovers are bringing a 2-1 first-leg lead home from the Azores after overcoming Portuguese side Santa Clara, while Shels are on the cusp of joining them in the group stage of European competition for the first time.
The good times are never that far away.
There is a solid argument for Wood to be considered the best footballer currently earning a living in Ireland. For starters, his technique is silky smooth, and he never stops working.
The English midfielder is certainly the most influential in Shelbourne’s recent history. It was Wood who scored the goal that beat Derry City in November to capture the League of Ireland title and send the north Dublin club on this European journey.
After Mipo Odubeko slipped before clipping the first of three penalties on the night over the Linfield crossbar five minutes before half-time, Wood wasted no time claiming the ball when Greek referee Vassilis Fotias touched his earpiece and pointed to the spot for a second time just before the break.
Odubeko, to his credit, having missed two clear chances to open the scoring, never stopped running and harrying centre-half Ben Hall.
Sure enough, after a lung-busting 60 metre sprint to counter-attack a Linfield corner, he nipped the ball off Hall, took the contact and went down a millimetre inside the visitor’s box.
Fotias appeared to wave play-on before VAR instructed him to award another penalty. Wood slashed it past Chris Johns to send Tolka Park into a state of delirium.
That’s only half the story from a hectic opening 45 minutes. Wood drew two fine saves out of Johns while Odubeko failed to put a free header on target, from Kerr McInroy’s sixth-minute cross, having done the hard work of losing Hall.
Next, there was high drama as Fitzpatrick was shown a straight red card after accidentally raking his studs into Milan Mbeng’s groin region. Both players were ball watching when Mbeng headed clear just as Fitzpatrick raised his leg and caught him.
The Greek official made a split second decision that Linfield manager David Healy passionately disputed.
Despite being reduced to 10, Kieran Offord had a great chance to put Linfield 1-0 ahead when he intercepted McInroy’s pass out of defence, evaded the onrushing Dutch goalkeeper Wessel Speel only to curl his shot over the crossbar as he tried to evade Paddy Barrett on the goal line.
The adrenaline coursing through Tolka subsided for about 15 minutes, until Wood’s cross hit Kyle McClean’s hand. Penalty number one. Odubeko slipped and missed.
Shels manager Joey O’Brien made an inspired decision at the turn, replacing centre back Sam Bone with Evan Caffrey. It took the winger 30 seconds to come off the right and set up Odubeko for the second goal. The former Republic of Ireland under-21 had to aim his shot through seven Linfield bodies. No problem.
Shelbourne have made life difficult for themselves all season long. Rarely does a game passed without a shape-shift from the sublime to the sloppy.
Offord pulled one back in the 52nd minute when Millar’s corner skimmed the heads of Sam Roscoe and Mark Coyle before the Scottish striker finished at the back post.
Would Bone have cleared it? Swings and roundabouts.
Cue ‘God Save the King’ from 300 travelling fans in the main stand.
Penalty number three, this time for Linfield, could have turned the tie upside down. Paddy Barrett was lucky to only see a yellow card when his hand denied Roscoe from scoring on the goal line. Offord stepped up, struck it well, only for Speel to save low to his left.
In a red blur, Wood was skipping out of one, two, three tackles before winning a corner down the other end.
Uefa only allowed 3,655 through the Drumcondra turnstiles but in that moment they sounded like 30,000.
SHELBOURNE: Speel; Mbeng (Moore 78), Barrett, Bone (Caffrey 46), Coyle (Gannon 78), Norris; Lunney, McInroy (Coote 64), Wood; Martin (Kelly 64), Odubeko.
LINFIELD: Johns; McGee (Brown 90), Roscoe, Hall, East; Millar (Mulgrew 84), McClean, Shields, Archer; Offord (Morrison 85), Fitzpatrick.
Referee: Vassilis Fotias (Greece).
