Shelbourne (Leinster Senior Cup)

Enjoyable and feisty affair in Tolka Park last night as a physically strong and good attacking unit from Shelbourne deserved their victory while Damian Locke will have to analyse the standard of Wexford's play during the first hour. With Graham Doyle and Craig McCabe on the sidelines, Damian went with Corey Chambers, Conor Sutton, Ross Kenny, Owen McCormack, Andy O'Connor, Adam Hanlon, John McKeown, Craig Wall, Duxey Dunne, Mark Slater and with Lee Duffy up front, Shelbourne had the look of a sharper team in the pre-match warm-up and not surprisingly they started the better, with a few crosses coming into the Wexford box but nothing came of them. Then, on eight minutes a blocked shot fell straight to the feet of Rooney for Shels and he blasted it past Chambers in the Wexford goal for 1-0 to Shels. First shot by Wexford came on ten minutes when Hanlon hit a daisy-cutter but it proved an easy catch for Delaney. Shels next decent chance came on 24 minutes and it led to their second goal when English was left with too much space to meet a cross and he back-headed it into the corner for 2-0. Lee Duffy then had a header a yard wide and later had the ball in the net after dispossessing Delaney illegally. But Wexford's play up to this stage had generally been poor with aimless balls being played towards an isolated Duffy, and although Wexford conceded a third just before half-time when a low cross by the impressive Shels left-back, McAteer (?), was touched home from a yard by English, it was Wexford's use of the ball when they had it which was the more worrying issue. 3-0 to Shels at half-time with Neil Doyle beginning to dish out the approx. 8-10 yellow cards which featured throughout the game. A worrying sign for Wexford was the withdrawal of Craig Wall right before the break holding his shoulder and in obvious discomfort, being immediately replaced by Thomas Croke.

Second half started with the award of a dodgy looking penalty to Shels after four minutes and it was knocked home by James English for his hat-trick and 4-0 to Shels. After about the hour mark, an aggressive Craig Hayes came on for Lee Duffy who had become more and more frustrated up front, and the tall Sean Hurley came on wide left, and Wexford suddenly managed to get the ball to stick in their opponent's half. It led to the award of two penalties, the first when Hurley was taken down right on the edge of the 18-yard box, and the second when, for some unfathomable reason, Neil Doyle picked out one of the many dragging down and holding incidents at both ends following a corner and pointed to the penalty spot in front of Dean Delaney. Both were comfortably despatched by Andy O'Connor to leave Wexford with some pride intact on a final 4-2 scoreline.

Best for Wexford were Andy O'Connor and Duxey Dunne while Craig Hayes and Sean Hurley made a difference after coming on around the hour mark. Shels showed why their pre-season results were so good and I would definitely put them top four in league terms. 4-2 to Shels at full-time.

we will have it tough v Shels in tolka judgin from what I have read here!

I was also quite impressed with Shels that night. A lot of individual talent on show and a particularly frustrating bunch to play against.