SHELS DRAW ORIEL BLANK
THEY played ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ on the PA system just before kick off last night as neither side gave the 2,806 paying patrons anything to be happy about at Oriel Park.
So, perhaps there should be worry. After winning six of their first seven games, league leaders Shelbourne have subsequently won just one of the seven they have played since.
Goals have dried up, just 15 scored from their 14 League games so far. They won’t win a League title with those percentages.
As for Dundalk, stranded at the bottom of the league with just eight points and even fewer goals to their name, Noel King’s side desperately need a break.
And they never really looked like getting one.
Even though the majority of the game was played in Shelbourne’s half, and even though Dundalk had eight attempts on goal, Shels keeper, Conor Kearns, wasn’t forced to produce an outstanding save.
Reacted
Ironically, his Dundalk counterpart, George Shelvey, did, when, with three minutes left, he reacted brilliantly to stop Sean Boyd’s fiercely struck shot.
A minute and a half later, Boyd had an even better chance, when Shane Farrell whipped a cross in from the right and the big target-man failed to connect with the volley.
By this stage, Shelbourne were completely dominant, with Farrell and Boyd’s introductions on the hour mark having an impact.
Yet the upgrade in their performance wasn’t down to this pair. Everything about their play in the last quarter of the game was impressive, their passing, their work rate, their ambition.
Until then Noel King’s strategy worked. Operating off a 4-3-3 system, Dundalk pressed high, denying Shelbourne the space and time they craved to play the game on their terms.
Dundalk’s wide players, Daryl Horgan and John Mountney, swung crosses into the box and a couple of chances came from those — Horgan getting a head to one of Mountney’s deliveries — yet the truth is that for all Dundalk’s possession, Shels keeper, Conor Kearns, was rarely troubled.
Still, he was busier than George Shelvey for most of the game, as Shelvey’s only job in that first half was to kick the ball out.
Plan
It was, to be blunt, a game that needed a goal.
And when the first 15 minutes of the second half failed to produce one, Duff reverted to Plan B, replacing Matty Smith and John Martin with Farrell and Boyd.
For Farrell, sent off on his last appearance for Shels — and strongly criticised by Duff afterwards — this was his big chance.
He took it, his performance energetic from the off. And gradually the tide began to turn in Shelbourne’s favour.
Before it did, Robbie Benson had a couple of good efforts, one on 70 minutes ending narrowly wide. Three minutes later, Koen Oostenbrink tried his luck.
But than it was all Shelbourne, as Boyd (twice) and Tyreke Wilson threatened.