Shelbourne go where few have gone before

In the end they had us hanging on the edge of our seats, but last night at Tolka Park Shelbourne finally ended their lengthy run of near misses in European competition, as well as a sorry five-year run without a single Irish victory in any of UEFA's competitions.

For Dermot Keely's side the reward is a meeting, next Wednesday back in Drumcondra, with Norweigan side Rosenborg, a side that is already running away with their domestic league this season and is anxious to repeat their achievement of last year in the Champions League when they topped their group in the initial stages.

They're bound, of course, to present a sterner challenge than the Macedonian side which visited Dublin last night, but Keely and his players have a week to reflect on how they'll cope with next week's challenge. Last night they earned the right to reflect with some pride on the way they handled this week's.

In the end it was a close run thing. Garry Haylock's close-range goal in the 68th minute doubled the aggregate lead which Richie Baker earned his side in Skopje last Wednesday. It meant in effect that the visitors had to score twice in the 90 minutes and they came alarmingly close to pulling it off.

It was a spirited performance by the hosts throughout, with Richie Baker causing the Macedonians, who like Shelbourne won their domestic double last season, all sorts of problems again out wide on the right. The central midfield partnership of Paul Doolin and Pat Fenlon worked tirelessly to prevent Sloga's skipper, the international striker Argend Beciri, who had been hauled back into the middle of the pitch in order to better run the show, from ever getting a decent grip on things.

Just as they did in the away leg, the Dubliners ended up conceding more possession than their manager could have intended, particularly in the first half. But even during that half they created two of the game's three clear-cut chances, with Haylock passing up the best of the lot.

In fact, the 29-year-old had the time and space required to make far more of a poorly struck Doolin shot that simply happened his way. All he managed, though, was the slightest glancing touch and with the goalkeeper well beaten, the ball clipped the foot of the left-hand post and hopped wide.

Against a defence which boasted two senior internationals he might well have expected more by way of marking, but at least when his next chance arrived, courtesy of a lobbed cross from the left by Mark Hutchison, Haylock showed that the lesson wasn't lost on him. Again left to his own devices on the edge of the six-yard box, his finish this time was as cool as they come.

That should have been it really, but James Keddy, having contributed valiantly to his side's defending all night, got a little over enthusiastic inside his own box and gave away a penalty. Arben Nuhiji tapped home from the penalty spot.

There were too many precedents of things unravelling very badly for Irish sides in Europe for anybody to rest easy after that. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes, it looked as though Beciri had stolen the night for the visitors. The 24-year-old did well to get free of his marker inside his box and better still to lob Steve Williams as the Welshman rushed off his line to smother the shot.

Owen Heary did best of all, though, tearing back behind his goalkeeper to hook the ball off his line and keep his side in the competition. "My biggest fear," he said afterwards, "was that I was going to bury it into my own net."

In the stands there were 6,000 or so supporters who feared precisely the same thing. As the ball sailed safely out of play, though, they knew that this night, finally, was going to be different.