THE domestic game suffered something of a setback on Saturday as Shelbourne crashed to a 9-0 defeat at the hands of Nottingham Forest. The 3,000-strong Tolka Park crowd were treated to some exhilarating football from Forest, who took the game very seriously and never let up for the 90 minutes.
Their attitude was typified by English international Stuart Pearce, who stole the limelight from their new signing, Nikola Jerkan. The Croatian had a comfortable if unspectacular game at the centre of the Forest defence.
Shelbourne, who only last Thursday suffered European disappointment at the hands of SK Brann, were unable to live with their pacier opponents who in the space of nine minutes went three up, courtesy of goals from Colin Cooper, Steve Chettle and Alf Inge Haaland.
Ian Woan made it four with a superb volley after 20 minutes, before Dean Saunders opened his account for his new club with a deft chip. Kevin Campbell completed the first half rout just on the whistle. Forest never took their foot off the pedal after the break and three more goals followed, with Pearce popping up for a well-deserved goal five minutes from the end.
In a second pre-season friendly in Dublin on Saturday, UCD enjoyed a 2-0 win over Welsh visitors, Bangor City. The students took a first-half lead through Darren O'Brien before Mick O'Byrne put the game beyond the visitors in the 51st minute.
