Late strike sinks Shelbourne

Perhaps we should have known that it would all end badly for Shelbourne the moment it emerged there had been disagreements within the camp during the past couple of days over when exactly it would be best for Pat Fenlon and his players to head for Portugal next week. Emmet Malone reports from Tolka Park

Shelbourne ... 0 Hibernians (Malta) ... 1

Hibernians win 3-2 on aggregate.

To be fair, though, the schedule for these stages of the Champions League requires a little forward thinking by even the most pessimistic of club officials. Shelbourne's problem, as it turned out, was that they also required a little finishing by their forwards last night if the tie was to be made safe and neither proved capable of providing it.

Even then the two away goals from last week's first leg should have been enough to see the Dubliners through to the next round and a meeting with Portuguese side Boavista. Hibernians, after all, had not won away in Europe once in more than 20 attempts and the way in which the team's officials swept onto the pitch in wild celebration as soon as Ndubisi Chukunyere's 91st-minute strike from 10 yards out hit the back of the net suggested they had not travelled to Dublin with any great expectation of ending the run.

The cruellest part of it all for Shelbourne manager Fenlon was that while his players had never quite been able to find the net over the course of a lively and open game, their superiority was never really in doubt.

Hibernians enjoyed only three or four half chances during the whole night and their defence spent almost the entirety of the first half scurrying around the edge of their area attempting to keep the home side's shooting chances to a minimum.

Needing to score themselves if they were to have any chance of progressing the Maltese were unable to pull too many bodies back and the result was that Fenlon's side had plenty of space in which to work as they moved the ball about their opposition's half in search of a breakthrough.

Trevor Molloy always looked its most likely source, the 25-year-old causing Silvio Vella and the rest of the visiting defence just the sort of problems he had for the Kaiserslautern here two seasons ago.

Behind him the Dubliners were moving the ball about well and Owen Heary combined particularly well with Richie Baker down the right flank to provide the former Bohemians striker with a couple of good chances to put the locals in front.

More than once the striker was a little unfortunate not to find the net from close range while on another couple he was dragged back by Hibernians' big centre back Adrian Pullis, whose first tug on the Irishman, in particular, looked an obvious penalty.However, once or twice the former Ireland under-21 international should have capitalised on the chances that came his way.

Baker, meanwhile, had fluffed an early shooting chance when put clear by Ollie Cahill but the best chance of the opening half came 10 minutes from the break when the left-sided midfielder floated an angled 25-yard free to the edge of the six-yard box. From there Molloy thought he had beaten Mario Muscat with his downward header only for Maltese international to push the ball wide with an outstretched foot.

On the sidelines Fenlon must have been slightly concerned that his side, in their determination to win the game, might leave themselves open at the back and soon after the break they did suffer a brief scare as Peter Pullicino skipped over a couple of weak challenges and looked set to go one on one with Steve Williams before Heary raced back to prevent the midfielder getting in his shot.

The chance came completely against the run of play, however, with the Shelbourne midfield completely dominating their opponents and the visiting strikers continually suffering from a lack of support when the ball was whipped quickly out of defence in their direction.

Far from looking likely to score at that stage the Maltese found themselves under almost constant pressure and Muscat increasingly emerged as his side's key figure.

Within seconds of the second half getting under way the goalkeeper saved well at the feet of Molloy and shortly afterwards he blocked a powerful strike from Cahill. On that occasion, though, Molloy really should have done better with his attempt to stick away the loose ball.

And so the struggle continued, Shelbourne enjoying the lion's share of possession and close to a monopoly on the game's many scoring chances without ever getting the goal they needed to make the tie secure.

When Cahill found Jim Gannon in space at the far post it briefly seemed that the long wait was over. Momentarily Muscat was caught hopelessly between his right-hand post and the big midfielder who headed cleanly past him and into the net only to have his celebrations cut short by the sight of the linesman's flag.

With the time slipping away Shelbourne looked increasingly conscious of the fact that a single goal on the break would cost them their trip to Portugal next week and so, rather nervously, they began to drop back a little. Still they were caught terribly for the goal with David Crawley left trailing after Antoine Zahra who initially looked to have made a poor call by not going for goal himself. After the substitute picked Ndubisi Chukunyere out in the centre so easily with his low square ball, however, and the Shelbourne defenders sank to their knees in collective despair it looked the best call possible on a grim night of European football for the Irish.

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Prenderville, McCarthy, Crawley Houlihan (92 mins); R Baker, S Byrne, Gannon, Cahill; Roberts, Molloy.

HIBERNIANS: Muscat; Nisevic, Vella, Pilis; Xuereb, Pullicino (Zahra, 70 mins), Mbong, Ciantar, Baldaacchino; Chukuunyere, A Mifsud.

Referee: V Godulyan (Ukraine).