Shelbourne 1 St Patrick's Athletic 1:THESE TWO clubs have quite a bit of history in this competition and, with Philly Hughes managing to cancel out Danny North's first-half strike for the visitors long after the locals had been reduced to 10 men, they have a bit of a future too for they'll meet again in Richmond Park on Monday.
The Inchicore outfit have won the last two cup encounters between the clubs there, but there was a touch of 1998 about this one and, having forced the replay, Shelbourne will make the short journey across the city hopeful of repeating their success of that year when they eventually came out on top of a fairly epic three -match tussle on penalties.
The downside of staying in the tie, though, is that their league game against Finn Harps, previously rescheduled for Monday, will be deferred again. So, with Limerick and Monaghan winning elsewhere last night, Shels’ task of getting their faltering campaign for promotion back on track must stay on hold for a while more.
On the strength of this performance, it is difficult to imagine what has gone wrong during a spell in which they have lost three of four league outings. Even without the likes of Lorcan Fitzgerald, Conan Byrne and Karl Bermingham, Alan Mathews’ men rather comfortably held their own against a top-flight side that until only a couple of weeks ago still retained notions of winning the title.
The opening exchanges suggested it was going to be a good game with both sides moving the ball forward through midfield with terrific speed and determination.
More than once, they paid for the pace they were attempting to play at in terms of the precision of their passing but they managed to string together some impressive moves between them.
The hosts started well and almost took the lead after 13 minutes when Philly Hughes linked well with David Cassidy as red shirts swept forward all over the pitch but the former Monaghan and Dublin City striker narrowly missed completing what would have been a cracking opening goal when his left-foot shot flew just wide.
At the other end, Daryl Kavanagh posed comfortably the greatest threat to Dean Delaney’s goal with the 25-year-old bobbing and weaving around and into the Shelbourne box almost untroubled at times. When it came to actually finding the target, though, or at least teeing up Danny North, nothing seemed to quite go right for the striker.
Still, he did manage to win a couple of frees in threatening positions and, from the first, Stephen Bradley forced a really good save, with Delaney getting down low and very well to his left to prevent the midfielder’s fiercely struck shot reaching the bottom corner.
The former youth international fared less well with the second but after Bradley had lofted the ball towards the near post and David Cassidy had only managed to partially clear with his head, the goalkeeper stood no chance really of keeping North’s powerful strike from reaching the target.
Having been the more inventive and adventurous of the two sides in open play, it was a tough setback for Shelbourne to sustain. However, their hopes were rocked again moments later when Colm James and Anto Murphy both went for the same high ball in midfield and tangled. As the Shelbourne midfielder, who had been having a good night until then, came down he seemed to kick out at his opponent and referee Anthony Buttimer reached straight for his red card.
The hosts regrouped and, to be fair, coped remarkably well with the handicap during the second half.
Pete Mahon’s men passed the ball crisply enough in midfield and started to retain possession a little more effectively as the game slowed fractionally but they never imposed themselves in the way they would have hoped.
They created a couple of chances, most notably an attempt by Murphy that flew behind off the top of the crossbar, which were wasted. But their greater error came in defence – and Shelbourne quickly made them pay for it.
Delaney pumped the ball long upfield and Hughes then Kevin Dawson both got touches. Pat’s troubles were compounded when Derek Pender rashly turned the ball across the face of his own goal and Hughes pounced to guide home his 24th goal of the season.
Late on, either side could have nicked it for the contest was still pretty frantic and open. St Pat’s will now look to finish the tie at home – otherwise it will be 51 years and counting since they lifted the trophy and three semi-final defeats since they last made a decider in 2006.
SHELBOURNE: Delaney; Ryan, Boyle, Paisley, S Byrne; McGill (Gorman, 63 mins), James, Dawson, Clancy; Hughes (De Silva, 89 mins), Cassidy.
ST PATRICK’S ATH: Rogers; Pender, E McMillan, Kenna, Bermingham; Murphy, McFaul (Crowley, 70 mins), Bradley (Mulcahy, 89), Doyle (D McMillan, 86); Kavanagh; North.
Referee: A Buttimer (Cork).
