AIRTRICITY LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION: Shelbourne 1 Cork City 2:BARELY midway through the second half of this dramatic end-of-season game at Tolka Park the stadium announcer began pleading with spectators to stay off the pitch afterwards as "both sides may wish to do a lap of honour at the end". With the two sides level at 1-1 at that stage, the suggestion of a dual celebration was clearly based on the idea that the status quo would be maintained, Shelbourne would be champions and their visitors would be pop a few champagne corks after safely securing promotion.
It was, of course, tempting fate, but it seemed most premature in relation to City who, with Monaghan winning comfortably in Athlone, stood to end up in the play-offs if they conceded again here.
By the time the final whistle sounded, though, it was the home side who, despite still being promoted, were left utterly deflated as Graham Cummins’ fine headed goal in the fourth minute of additional time, sealed the title for Cork and left Shels to pick themselves up between now and the cup final.
Alan Mathews will have to lead that process but even one of the league’s most communicative managers couldn’t bring himself to speak with the media afterwards.
Tommy Dunne, in contrast, was happy to reflect on his club’s great journey back from the brink of extinction to promotion and a title, he hopes, that will prove to be another stepping stone on the path to greater things.
“To get promoted in the manner in which we did is just fantastic,” he said. “To get back up in two years, I thought was a big ask considering where we were coming from. If you were to go by the book, so to speak, three years is about right. But we’ve done it in two and it’s been fantastic.”
Cummins scored his 24th goal of the campaign here when he turned home a cracking cross by Derek O’Brien out on the left.
Despite having recently signed a new deal (one that apparently contains a release clause to be triggered by an offer of reckoned to be around €100,000) the striker is said to be set for trials with Wolves and Reading over the coming weeks.
It was a spirited all-round display by Cork who had taken the lead through Daryl Horgan in the fourth minute and then stayed in touch due to a tremendous collective effort and some excellent goalkeeping by Mark McNulty.
Shelbourne, though, dominated the first half during which they played some great football and scored a well-taken as well as a well-deserved goal through stand-in skipper David Cassidy whose form has been outstanding.
The quality of their play slipped significantly as they tired in the second half, however, and Cork, though they might easily have settled for the draw that would take them up, never seemed to give up on the victory and title.
And despite a certain amount of controversy over how much additional time was played, they eventually reaped their reward.
With Monaghan’s win in Athlone securing them the play-off place against Galway, Limerick lost out a little cruelly despite beating Waterford well at home.
SHELBOURNE: Delaney; Mathew, Boyle, Ryan, Byrne; B McGill (Mulhall 90+2), Dawson, Sullivan, Clancy (Byrne, 80 mins); Hughes (Gorman, 77 mins), Cassidy.
CORK CITY:McNulty; N Horgan, Kavanagh (O'Brien, 70 mins), Spillane, D Murphy; Morrissey, O'Halloran, Duggan, D Horgan (Turner, 90+1); Cummins, O'Neill (Sullivan, half-time).
Referee:P McLaughlin (Monaghan).
