Shels bow out to Lille

[A face]

Shels bow out to Lille

Shelbourne’s European run was finally ended tonight, a 2-0 defeat to Lille ended Shels’ hopes of advancing to the group stage of the UEFA Cup. Although similar to the first leg in that Lille scored twice in the first half, little was repeated in the second half as the Irish champions failed to muster more than one shot on target.
Manager Pat Fenlon stood by his 4-5-1 formation but it didn’t pay off as Shelbourne regularly struggled to maintain possession, their midfield at times over-run.
Acimovic went close for Lille after just eight minutes, firing wide after being played in from a free-kick. It was a warning of things to come for Shels. Tavlaridis headed over from another worked free-kick on 13 minutes and Moussilou should have opened the scoring two minutes later after Owen Heary’s bizarre ball across his own area picked out the Lille player.


Read more at www.irishfootballonline.com

[dynamo kerry]

After last night all of the Irish Clubs are now out of European competition. Shels and Cork finish with pride after both setting new high standards while Bohs and Longford think on what might have been.

Cork went to the third round and it has to be said they were a little unfortunate to lose by a narrow gap to a good French side in Nantes. Review. Close but no cigar you might say. Shels then went and had a very unflattering draw away to Kr Reykevik and we all reckoned it was Hibernians all over again. Not so and they went on to get a draw at home and progress nicely. Then we all got settled and hoped for great things from Bohs and Longford. Stephen Kenny mamanged to get himself the sack as a result of 2 horrendous games but at least they got an away draw which was more than we can say for a woeful Longord against Liecthensteins' best.
It has to be said that were it not for these two results we'd all be a lot happier now as we've pretty much only got Shelbournes points to boost our UEFA coeeficent for next season.

more here

[CuanaD]

After last night all of the Irish Clubs are now out of European competition. Shels and Cork finish with pride after both setting new high standards while Bohs and Longford think on what might have been.

Cork went to the third round and it has to be said they were a little unfortunate to lose by a narrow gap to a good French side in Nantes. Review. Close but no cigar you might say. Shels then went and had a very unflattering draw away to Kr Reykevik and we all reckoned it was Hibernians all over again. Not so and they went on to get a draw at home and progress nicely. Then we all got settled and hoped for great things from Bohs and Longford. Stephen Kenny mamanged to get himself the sack as a result of 2 horrendous games but at least they got an away draw which was more than we can say for a woeful Longord against Liecthensteins' best.
It has to be said that were it not for these two results we'd all be a lot happier now as we've pretty much only got Shelbournes points to boost our UEFA coeeficent for next season.

more here

I read the full article & disagree about the Longford situation. The consensus at the away match (Vaduz) was that (like Bohs) Longford did everything but score & were unlucky to lose on the night. For the home game they went one down early on & the tie was effectively over, but they never gave up! Those of us who understand the rules of the game saw an away team who conned the ref on many occasions to frustrate Longford, but still they kept going & in the end had the reward of the final 2 goals - too little too late I know but Vaduz knew that they were being overrun as the game wore on by a fitter team & knew they were lucky over the 2 legs to be 4:2 winners. Point being, Longford have heart & keep going for the 90 minutes & now they have a belief that they DESERVE to compete in Europe. I hope they go on to retain the Cup & qualify again so that they can show the doubters.

[dynamo kerry]

I read the full article & disagree about the Longford situation. The consensus at the away match (Vaduz) was that (like Bohs) Longford did everything but score & were unlucky to lose on the night. For the home game they went one down early on & the tie was effectively over, but they never gave up! Those of us who understand the rules of the game saw an away team who conned the ref on many occasions to frustrate Longford, but still they kept going & in the end had the reward of the final 2 goals - too little too late I know but Vaduz knew that they were being overrun as the game wore on by a fitter team & knew they were lucky over the 2 legs to be 4:2 winners. Point being, Longford have heart & keep going for the 90 minutes & now they have a belief that they DESERVE to compete in Europe. I hope they go on to retain the Cup & qualify again so that they can show the doubters.

I disagree. I don't generally think longfor have what it takes to put games beyond european opposition. it could be argued that cork did everything but score the second goal against nantes. the truth is longford should never have been in a situation where vaduz could beat them. to be fair their form at the time was shocking but it has't improved so much that I would want them to be representatives of the EL in europe.

[Poor Student]

I didn't see the Longford games so I won't knock Longford's performance but I don't want to see them in Europe next year. If it can't be UCD, then I want to see our three best teams competing in Europe next year and you only need to look at the eL table to see Longford are certainly not that. But in Longford's defence I have to say we must not make Vaduz out to be some part time minnows. They ply their trade in Switzerland. They finished second in the Swiss' equivilant of Division 1 last year and only missed out on promotion by a playoff defeat. Now while Switzerland are not a powerhouse of European football their league is of a better quality than ours. Vaduz are an ambitous club with foreign imports who have quickly risen through the ranks of Swiss football and are doing well this year. They enter and win the Liechtenstein Cup every year and get their 1 and only spot in European competition but they are no part time pub team. I was more embarrassed by Bohs one of our bigger clubs with European experience losing to an unseeded team.

[dynamo kerry]

I don't think it's about embaresment. bohs were indeed a disappointment as were longford. Everything you say about Vaduz is true (except their quality- thats supposition)
Shels were never made look poor by deportivo or lille (exposed for a lack of experience maybe but not shown up). There are several teams that make it into the top division in evry country that just arent up to it. (norwich, dublin city)- it's no reason to suspect they are better than they are. If Cork can beat the likes of Nijmegen and Malmo and get very close to Nantes then Longford really have no excuses.

Longford just weren't good enough, whereas I believe any of the current top 4 would have beaten vaduz.

I wish them well as a club but they wouldn't be my preferred side in europe.

[higgins]

what are people doing making excuses for longford???

they were rubbish...

got beaten home and away and never gave them a decent game

and yet again more rubbish of them being over run by a fitter and stronger team?? when you are something like 4-0 up and you have to let in 5 to lose you do kind of take your eye off a little in the last 10 mins

longford were a disgrace and you dont deserve another chance until you can convince others that your serious enough instead of talking crap about building on the game and learning from it and bla bla bla...

Shels Bohs and Drogheda would probably be our best bet at the moment id think