Murray the main victim of sparkling Shelbourne

National League Premier Division/ Cork City 0 Shelbourne 2: Cork City captain Dan Murray was the luckless victim of a sparkling Shelbourne performance at Turner's Cross last night as he deflected both goals beyond his goalkeeper, Michael Devine.

Twice Murray attempted to intercept shots at goal and each time he held his head in despair after deceiving Devine. He turned a ball from Wes Hoolahan over Devine's head in the 53rd minute, and then, in the 75th minute, saw a powerful shot from Ollie Cahill bounce off his body and fly inside the near upright.

The mystery was that Shelbourne did not score more on a night when they silenced Cork fans in an estimated attendance of 6,000. They controlled the game throughout, and scarcely allowed Cork a single scoring chance as they out-played them with football that was bright and breezy and altogether too hot for Cork to handle.

Shelbourne made one change to the team that beat Dublin City last time out with Hoolahan coming in on the right of midfield in place of Ger Rowe. Jason Byrne was partnered at centre-forward by Glen Fitzpatrick.

The visitors had clearly marked George O'Callaghan as a key man, as twice in the opening seven minutes he was the victim of challenges that earned yellow cards for Stuart Byrne and Dave Rogers.

Hoolahan was lucky he was not the third man in the referee's book when he wrestled the Corkman to the ground in the 28th minute.

Cork played into Shelbourne's hands by too often seeking the overhead route to goal, a policy that had no hope of success against such a powerful force as Jamie Harris at the heart of the defence.

CORK CITY: Devine; O'Halloran (Sweeney, 82 mins), Murray, Bennett, Murphy; Doyle, CT O'Brien (Woods, 85 mins), O'Callaghan, Nwanko; Fenn, O'Flynn (Behan, 85 mins).

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Harris, Rogers, Crawley; Hoolahan (Rowe, 80 mins), S Byrne, Crawford, Cahill; J Byrne, Fitzpatrick (McCarthy, 87 mins).

Referee: J Feighery (Dublin).