John Martin’s impressive performance brought Shelbourne their first triumph since March 29th, placing them three points ahead of Derry City on the leaderboard. This achievement keeps the hope of bagging their first Premier Division title since 2006 viable.
In spite of coming late into the game, Sean Boyd, the centre forward, managed to clear during the final injury-time seconds, echoing his performance against Shamrock Rovers on Monday night. The majority of the 4,755 spectators might not appreciate this feat much.
After 30 minutes into the game, something shifted within the Shelbourne team. They realised that simply maintaining ball possession without taking the critical final shot wouldn’t break their losing streak of five games.
Damien Duff found himself receiving a yellow card from referee Robert Harvey for his excessive questioning of the linesman’s judgement, which was the triggering event of change. With a fresh haircut and a clean-shaven look, Duff took off his jacket and began directing his questions to his players.
They responded well to this. Matt Jarvis left his position, skillfully manoeuvred into the box, causing Ryan McLaughlin to fall, but his shot was effortlessly caught by Daniel Rogers, St Patrick’s Athletic’s goalkeeper.
Soon after, a powerful shot from a distance by Mark Coyle was deflected by Rogers.
Without Joe Redmond in St Pat’s defence and the absence of Ruairi Keating up front, Shelbourne repeatedly attacked from the right. Matty Smith made a low cross into the box and Martin didn’t disappoint, finishing it perfectly.
With a score of 1-0, Tolka Park amplified with techno goal music.
The trio – Williams, Sean Gannon and Liam Burt – were steadily pushing their guests back. Burt even managed to coax another save out of Rogers.
However, St. Pat’s resilience remained intact, their quality too prominent to break easily. After the young Mason Melia was knocked down, Jake Mulraney barely missed a free-kick into the bottom corner.
A misunderstanding from Duff lead to a claim that “You can’t be offside in your own half!” to the linesman, which earned him a booking — a caution earlier was received by assistant coach Joey O’Brien instead.
St Pats’ were shown five yellow cards via traditional fouls committed during the game.
When the information reached Drumcondra that Galway United was ahead with 1-0 against Rovers in Tallaght, only to end with a 1-1 draw and as Bohs were lagging 2-0 from Dundalk at Oriel Park, Shels found themselves comfortably seated at the peak of the premier division, yet again.
Jarvis paused on an opportune moment to secure a full three points, sparking a surge of offensive gameplay. Gavin Molloy was left astonished as his downward header from Tyreke Wilson’s spiralling free-kick was stopped by Rogers.
Boyd wrapped up the event, once more.
Playing for Shelbourne were Kearns; Gannon, Molloy, Ledwidge, Wilson; Smith (replaced by O’Sullivan in the 76th minute), Lunney, Coyle; Burt, Jarvis (substituted with Caffrey on the 89th), Martin (swapped with Boyd at the 66th-minute mark).
On St Patrick’s Athletic team were Rogers; McLaughlin, Keeley, Turner, Breslin; Lennon (supplemented by Palmer on the 66th), Forrester; Bolger (replaced by Leavy on the 80th), Kavanagh, Mulraney (exchanged with Nolan on the 66th); and Melia (swapped with Kavanagh at the 60th minute).
The match referee was Robert Harvey.