Shelbourne get the job done

In the stands they were waving banners urging Wimbledon to stay at home, but you got the feeling that if Sam Hammam ever laid his hands on a video of what was a poor game, attended by around 3,500, he'd be a very happy man indeed.

Happier, anyway, than Mick Byrne, whose Shamrock Rovers side were for the second week in succession beaten by a team with more sustainable title ambitions.

Shelbourne may not exactly have lived up to their reputation for style - if this looked good at home, put it fairly and squarely down to the magic of television - but, like St Patrick's a week ago, they showed that they possess the patience and determination to wear a decent team down.

Neither side created much to shout about, but when Shelbourne did manage to get in about the area, they made the most of it. With Stephen Geoghegan on the bench nursing a groin strain, Pat Scully and Dessie Baker provided the goals that take their side to within a point of Pat Dolan's at the top of the table.

Byrne, to be fair, has hardly been extravagant in his claims on behalf of the current Rovers panel. His plans, like the club's, are focussed firmly on the longer term, and for the moment all in the camp must remain patient.

If they needed any reminding, then it was provided by this defeat, for after last night they are left with either the cup or a hotly-contested European place to aim for. And unless, over the remaining couple of months, they can perform imaginatively in midfield and provide Tony Cousins with the sort of service he requires, it is difficult to imagine how they will achieve either.

Certainly, on the evidence of the past week, they lack the ability to penetrate a quality defence. Shelbourne have had a habit of pushing too far forward for their own good, but once they had taken the lead in this match, they had no need to take any real risks.

Their reliance for long stretches on long balls from the back may have quickly grown tedious, but, against a side which seemed incapable of keeping a move going from one end of the pitch to the other, there was little doubting its effectiveness.

And Rovers could hardly claim to have been overwhelmed by the quality of the individual performances of their opponents. An unhealthy percentage of the Shelbourne team were having poor enough evenings, but Mark Rutherford's speed down the left and Liam Kelly's tireless running up front was still enough to mark them out as the more dangerous side from early on.

Even the "visiting" side's set pieces appeared more likely to produce something, as Rovers' dead ball specialist, Marc Kenny, scarcely managed a threatening free all night.

What chances he did create for the tenants came in the immediate aftermath of Scully's opener for their temporary landlords. Straight from the restart, Rovers moved forward, and when Kenny's subsequent corner was flapped at by Alan Gough there was nobody but Declan Geoghegan at the far post, from where the fit-again full back headed away to safety.

Still shaken, though, the Shelbourne defence were quickly under pressure again. Kenny this time curled in a free from the right which both Scully and Tony McCarthy let pass, only to see Sean Francis pop up beyond the far post from where he should have hit the target.

At the other end, Scully had not been nearly so generous. Pat Fenlon's free kick after 42 minutes had been from a fairly unpromising position, and even after Kenny's attempt to clear had rebounded off Dave Campbell there seemed to be little enough to panic about.

With his back to goal and still moving away from it, however, the 27-year-old centre-half showed great composure to hook the ball over Robert Forde, picking up his 10th goal of the campaign when many others would have been happy to pull the ball out wide and look for support.

Many of the same cast were involved in the second half encore. A Fenlon free, and Scully lurking. Nothing strange about any of that. But this time he, McCarthy and Kelly all failed to make a clean contact, and up stepped Dessie Baker to hammer a fierce shot over the pack and into the top left corner.

"This makes up for last week," said Scully. "We needed the win to keep up with St Patrick's and we got it, so I'm happy with the way it all went."

With the points in the bag, the satisfaction was natural. Last night it could hardly have mattered that much to anyone in the Shelbourne camp that the side looked a lot less formidable than they had over the first two months of the campaign.

This morning, though, they will know that as things get tighter over the coming weeks they may need to do better if they are to squeeze out their rivals in the race for the league.

Shamrock Rovers: Forde; Purdy, Whelan, Brazil, Tracey; Britton, Colwell, Kenny, Morrisroe; Cousins, Francis. Subs: Murray and O'Neill for Francis and Kenny (64 mins); Stokes for Morrisroe (84 mins).

Shelbourne: Gough; Costello, Scully, McCarthy, D Geoghegan; Sheridan, Campbell, Fenlon, Rutherford; Kelly, Baker. Subs: Fitzgerald for Campbell (73 mins).

Referee: J Stacey (Athlone).