SHELBURNE SEAL DEAL WITH DRAW
SHELBURNE collected the precious point they needed to capture the Division 2 title after a tight and tense battle in Hollygrove on Sunday.
It was by no means their most swashbuckling display of the season but they rolled up their sleeves and ground out a result, holding firm despite a late onslaught from the Sky Blues and finally getting over the line after a nail-biting seven minutes of injury time.
A youthful North End side also had plenty to play for coming into the game, harbouring title ambitions of their own, knowing that if they could beat the table-toppers and gain maximum points from their remaining two games they would force a play-off.
The home side had to throw caution to the wind in the closing stages, but although hearts skipped a few beats among the travelling support in a frantic finale they failed to create any real clear-cut opportunities against a well-marshalled Shelburne defence.
North End had a couple of half-chances early on, with Brandon Sinnott firing Ashley Houghton’s back post delivery over the bar in the seventh minute and Daryll Power fizzing a left-wing cross across the face of goal moments later.
However, Shelburne grew into the game with Patrick Murphy looking threatening on the left flank and linking up well with the hard-working Eoin Kelly.
The Ballywilliam-based outfit came agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock on 20 minutes when Dennis Murray got his head on a Jamie O’Dowd corner, but his goal-bound effort was cleared off the line.
North End always looked capable of troubling the Shelburne defence though, and Ashley Houghton blazed a shot narrowly wide of the right post after winning possession at the edge of the area and five minutes later he curled a 25-yard free-kick over the bar.
Shelburne tried to push the Wexford town side back at the beginning of the second-half, but with what was at stake it was only a matter of time before they retreated into their defensive shell.
On 56 minutes Stuart Lawlor headed over after a Daryll Power corner found its way to him at the back post and at the other end Kieran Kelly whipped a free into the danger zone, but Eoin Kelly failed to get a firm connection on his effort.
With ten minutes remaining the warm sun made a welcome appearance from behind the clouds and Shelburne were definitely feeling the white heat of pressure as their title aspirations were within touching distance of being realised.
With 88 minutes on the clock, Ayman Yousif headed a Stuart Lawlor cross from the right wing on target, but to the relief of the Shelburne faithful it was straight at goalkeeper Enda Doran and he got down well to make the save.
In the fourth minute of stoppage time the visitors had to endure one more heart-stopping moment when Tony Crosbie glanced a difficult header wide from a Yousif cross before the loud shrill of referee John Diskin’s final whistle was greeted with wild celebrations. NORTH END UNITED: Graham Murphy, Fran Cleary, Cian Brennan, Stuart Lawlor, Tony Crosbie, Ashley Houghton, Shane Beary, Ayman Yousif, Daryll Power, Danny Fitzpatrick, Brandon Sinnott. Subs. - Dylan Walsh for Beary (66), Anthony Codd for Houghton, also Jordan Jarrett, Emmett Sinnott. SHELBURNE UNITED: Enda Doran, Mick O’Donnell, Kevin Collins, Kieran Kelly, Pádraig Lynch, Patrick Murphy, Dennis Murray, Brian Minogue, Jamie O’Dowd, Chris Connick, Eoin Kelly. Subs. - Rob Kehoe for O’Dowd (66), Barry Kelly for Murphy (83), Brian Lynch for Eoin Kelly (90+4), also John Murphy, Richie Minogue. REFEREE: John Diskin.