Intertoto Cup: Shelbourne 1, FK Vetra 0 Five years ago a victory for an Irish side in Europe would have been the exception to the rule, but Shelbourne for the most part have changed that and their win in Vilnius, Lithuania, last night was achieved with the professionalism now a given on Richmond Road.
Seán Dillon provided the only goal, his first for the club, in a hard-earned win that puts Shels into a strong position in this Intertoto Cup first-round tie.
The return leg is in Tolka Park next Saturday, and with the away goal in the bag, Shels can be confident of progressing to face Danish side Odense in the next round.
There is work still to do, however, as Vetra showed in the second half that they have enough quality to trouble Pat Fenlon's side.
Formation and line-up differed significantly from Shelbourne's last game, against Derry at Tolka Park, as Fenlon opted for a conservative 4-5-1 formation with Dave Crawley, Joe Ndo and Bobby Ryan coming in for Dave Rogers, Gary O'Neill and Richie Baker respectively.
For the hosts it had been a turbulent few days, coach Edgar Gess resigning last Tuesday after failing to guide Vetra to a win in six games. Reserve team coach Vytas Janciauskas took over.
From the beginning it was Shels that looked the more accomplished, Ndo bossing midfield and Alan Moore pulling the strings just behind Jason Byrne in attack.
Moore had a great chance on the half hour when he pounced on some uncertainty in Vetra's defence. But instead of slotting the ball home with his right foot, he cut inside onto his stronger left-side and gave goalkeeper Mirza Merlani time to retreat and make a save on the line.
Merlani had to take some blame for Shelbourne's goal, four minutes before the break, when he was caught out by a long Ndo free-kick and Dillon had the simple task of heading the ball into an empty net.
If the opening period was all Shels, the second saw the tables turn firmly in favour of the hosts. But Shels stood firm and Alan Moore might have wrapped up the tie had he judged his lob better in the final 15 minutes. It's onwards and upwards for the Reds.
SHELBOURNE: Delaney; Heary, Dillon, Hawkins, Crawley; Ryan, Ndo, Moore (Reynolds, 83), Byrne, Cahill; Bynre (Crowe, 65).
FK VETRA: Merlani; Zudys, Jankauskas, Sasnauskas, Usachev; Preiksaitis, Vencevicius (Bozinovski, 46), Miloseski, Sernas (Kochanauskas, 80); Vezevicius (Blazys, 75), Kuznetsov.
Referee: S Moen (Norway).
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