Shelbourne F.C. 2 - 3 St. Patricks Athletic
Joshua Bell Curran reporting live from Tolka Park
Shelbourne and St. Patricks Athletic played out a classic Dublin derby in Tolka Park last night, with two final quarter goals not proving enough for Damien Duff's men.
While Shelbourne may still have their four-point lead at the top of the table, they've won just one of their last eight encounters. Elsewhere Stephen Kenny's St. Pats are surging up the table with five wins on the bounce. After Monday's result, Shels sit just four points atop Derry and five above Rovers with five games to play, and away games against both sides.
While many are regarding the task as too tall, Damien Duff was in no doubt about his side's ability.
If there's one thing I would've described St. Pats with it's they're Stone cold killers and yeah I think we played through them at will...but here you can't give St. Pats chances like that like I said they've top-quality attacking talent and they put us to the sword.
Last time I checked we're first it's still in our hands, granted people can catch us up.....I know it's the business end of the season and we're trying to win a league but it's not time to change. It's a time to carry on and do what we've been doing for two and a half, three years.
While Duff may have held his hands up about giving St. Pats chances, he was less impressed by the 'mind-boggling' decision to award a free against John Martin after he'd been 'rugby tackled' that led directly to St. Patrick's late winner.
I won't give an out to the decision before to give a foul against John Martin just there, when he's been rugby tackled to the ground, they score 6 7 seconds later, I thought was absolutely mind boggling.
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Damien Duff delivers cheeky quip after touchline altercation
Despite Shelbourne's quick start that saw them racing out of the traps with a number of early chances, it wasn't long before St. Pats punished Duff's side for their inefficiencies in front of the nets, with a Joe Redmond rocket sending Pats ahead against the run of play in just the 22nd minute.
Shels held their first-half momentum as the game kicked back off, with Duff's men delivering a number of early chances that kept Joseph Anang on his toes. Yet once again as Damien Duff's voice became more strained with Shels squandered opportunities, it was St. Patricks Athletic who caught Shels on the hop and doubled their lead with a Brandon Kavanagh tap-in.
While with twenty minutes to go it looked like Pats had slipped into cruise control, a Rayhaan Tulloch screamer against the run of play brought Tolka Park alive. Trailing by one, Shelbourne's first sniff at goal left them craving more with substitute Matty Smith levelling affairs just four minutes later.
The two goals are nothing to do with me, we've a wonderful attacking talent at this football club and I think the players forget that at times.
While tempers flared when Pats assistant manager Brian Gartland entered Shelbournes's technical area to give oncoming substitute Al-Amin Kazeem advice, the 22-year-old had the last laugh as he came on and buried the winner just moments later in what was his first professional goal. After the game, Damien cleared up what happened, making a cheeky jab at the Pats management.
The last time I checked the rule book rule book, the technical area, the Shelbourne one is for Shelbourne staff not St. Patricks Athletic staff, it's no problem we shook hands at the end so its fine.
From there on, things went from bad to worse for Duff, as goalscorer Matty Smith saw red for a reckless challenge before tensions rose and Shelbourne escaped from another free kick turned scrap with a yellow card.
Wonderful goal, Matty's been brilliant for us for two years. Yeah initially when I saw it I just thought it was a collision but when you look at it back I think he's got it right, the referee.
Shelbourne now travel to Tallaght Stadium for their all-important clash with Shamrock Rovers on Sunday, where only a win will be enough to hold onto the keys of their own fate heading into the final three games.
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