Soccer Champions League qualifier: The unique oddities of Irish football were fully in evidence as Shelbourne strolled into the second round of the Champions League qualifiers last night at Tolka Park where we got what may have been a first at any game's turnstiles.
"No club colours", supporters of both sides were told as they entered the ground. The weirdest part being the clubs concerned both play their football in Glasgow.
Further evidence of how things are changing for the better on this island was then provided as shirts were checked in without any great rancour to be collected later. Had they known how the night was to turn out the visiting fans affected might have put up greater resistance for a good many of them may only have stayed to the final whistle in order to reclaim their property.
The positive atmosphere on and off the field was good news for everybody but the ease with which Shelbourne secured their passage to next week's second round against Steaua Bucharest must have especially cheered Pat Fenlon. At one stage Glentoran were level at 1-1 and needing to find the net just one more time to level the tie up but ultimately goals from Owen Heary, Glen Crowe and a couple more from Jason Byrne provided an impressive final scoreline.
"I'm delighted with the way we've played over the two legs," said the Shelbourne manager afterwards. "We could have scored that many up there but 6-2 on aggregate in the Champion League is a great achievement and, in the end, I would have been happy with winning 1-0 over the to games.
"You're always concerned," he said of the spell after the visitors had equalised through Peter McCann, "and they looked to be getting themselves very much back into the game. We didn't make the best of starts to the second half either but once we got back on top we did well and we could have scored more."
Clearly pleased with what he had seen in Belfast a week ago Fenlon named an unchanged team for just the second time in 27 games.
Shelbourne started well, quickly pinning the Northerners back and, as they had repeatedly done at the Oval, showed their back four was decidedly shaky when under any sort of serious pressure.
Byrne should have opened his account almost immediately but the local support didn't have to wait all that long for something to sing about. Thirteen minutes in Paul Leeman fouled Crowe 30 yards out and from David Crawley's free Heary's downward header slipped between Elliott Morris and his post.
In practical terms the goal made little enough difference to the overall scheme of things. Glentoran still needed to score twice although even that would now only be good enough to push the game into extra-time. Psychologically the breakthrough might have proved important but, rather typically, Shelbourne followed it with a much more uncertain spell and the visitors showed that, if they were allowed to, they could play a bit of football.
With Tommy McCallion driving the team from central midfield and last year's prolific striking partnership of Michael Halliday and Chris Morgan looking dangerous, the home side needed to maintain their composure. As Glentoran pushed forward there were worrying signs and the equaliser, when it came, was a mess. Peter McCann and Michael Halliday were allowed to play a one-two as defenders everywhere stood off them, Richie Baker made an intervention he would have been better off avoiding and Dean Delaney took down Halliday only for McCann to sidefoot home before the referee had time to give the penalty.
Baker made amends with a couple of threatening runs not long after and in the 32nd minute the referee had all the time in the world to point to the spot when Leeman blocked Stuart Byrne's driven shot with his arm and was shown his second yellow card for the offence.
As he did a week ago, Jason Byrne sent the Morris the wrong way to further boost a European strike rate which, prior to coming up against Roy Coyle's side, was far from impressive. Crowe, on the other hand, has always managed a decent return in Uefa competitions and the 28-year-old cemented his position as the league's leading scorer with a fine volley into the top right corner 13 minutes into the second half.
The strike left Glentoran trailing 3-1 on the night and needing to score three times with just 10 men. Clearly it wasn't going to happen.
Shelbourne were dominant in every area and on each occasion they swept from midfield towards what was now a three-man defence they threatened to extend the margin. Jason Byrne did just that when he headed his second of the game 19 minutes from time and the striker then passed up a couple of opportunities to complete his hat-trick before being replaced to a long ovation late on.
Stuart Byrne and Gary O'Neill both came close to making it five as well, something never achieved by an Irish side in a European game.
Of more concern to Fenlon than Walker's goal-line clearance or Morris' fine save will be the second-half bookings picked up by Jim Crawford and Colin Hawkins as well as a knock to Heary that left him limping through the closing stages and could yet keep him out of tomorrow's league game at Bray.
Shelbourne 1 Glentoran 0
SHELBOURNE: Delaney; Heary, Hawkins, Rogers, Crawley; Baker, S Byrne, Hoolahan (Crawford, 73 mins), Cahill; J Byrne (O'Neill, 83 mins), Crowe (Fitzpatrick, 83 mins).
GLENTORAN: Morris; Nixon, Leeman, Walker, Holmes; McCann (Keegan, half-time, Melaugh, 88 mins), McCallion, Lockhart, Ward (Parkhouse, 67 mins); Morgan, Halliday.
Referee: P Sippel (Germany).
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