League of Ireland Premier Division: Shelbourne 1 (Norris 70) St Patrick’s Athletic 2 (Olusanya 7, Brown 34)
First-half goals from Anthony Olusanya, on his full debut, and James Brown proved enough to earn St Patrick’s Athletic victory in a fractious Dublin derby with Shelbourne at Tolka Park which saw the brandishing of four red cards.
Two of those were to the Shelbourne bench with head coach John Russell and then strength and conditioning coach Mauro Martins dismissed.
St Patrick’s assistant coach Brian Gartland was sent off in the second half incident involving Russell before Shels then also had striker Rodrigo Freitas sent off for a second booking late on.
The win consolidates St Pats’ second place in the table, though they remain seven points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers.
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Amid their high-profile Conference League tie with Ajax, Shelbourne stay fifth with plenty to do to qualify for Europe next season.
Shels started brightly, moving the ball at pace as they stretched St Pat’s defensively, Kerr McInroy having the first shot in anger bravely blocked by Sean Hoare.
It proved a false dawn for the home side as St Pat’s soon came alive to punish abject defending on seven minutes.
Having won a corner from Ed Beach’s fine save, Aidan Keena’s delivery was allowed to travel across the face of the Shels goal to find Olusanya completely unmarked for the Finland international to tap in the easiest goal he might ever score.
Shelbourne should have been further behind just past the half-hour following more sloppy defending.
Odhran Casey’s attempted back pass fell way short allowing Olusanya a free shot which, to Casey and Shels’ relief, he contrived to blaze wastefully over the top.
There was no such reprieve for a disjointed Shels when St Pat’s did double their lead on 34 minutes.
Olusanya set up Chris Forrester who drilled his shot off a post. Nobody tracked wing-back Brown arriving in on the right who gleefully side-footed home.
Dan Kelly might have got Shels back into the game but for the save of the half from Joseph Anang a minute before the interval.
What looked a handball by Forrester from a Kelly shot then had Shels’ appeals for a penalty not entertained by Dublin referee Paul Norton as they trooped off for the break frustrated by that, if not their overall disappointing first-half display.
With Sean Moore and JJ Lunney on for Ali Coote and Jack Henry-Francis, Shels had far more about them from the resumption.
And they were inches from getting a goal back on two occasions inside 10 minutes.
First, a mistake by St Pat’s captain Joe Redmond saw Kelly skip away to rifle against the bar, Evan Caffrey volleying the rebound wide.
Moments later another Shels attack resulted in Moore blasting against the crossbar.
The action then spilled over between the dugouts when Shels’ Russell went to retrieve a ball close to the St Pat’s bench.
Gartland confronted him, resulting in a bout of shoving. When tempers eased Norton showed both Russell and Gartland a red card.
With the main action having resumed back on the pitch, James Norris got Shels back into the game on 70 minutes, scooping home at the back post from the lively Milan Mbeng’s cross.
The game then saw two further red cards in quick succession, first to the Shels’ bench again when Martins was dismissed for dissent, his second booking.
Yellow-carded for protesting the penalty incident late in the first half, striker Freitas then saw a second card for a late challenge on Hoare and was sent off.
Though Shelbourne pressed right till the end of six added minutes, St Pat’s held firm to record a second win at Tolka Park in a season for the first time in their history.
In Sunday’s other Premier Division match, Waterford continued their run of form with a 3-1 win over Bohemians at the RSC to move out of the bottom two for the first time this season.
Waterford were 3-0 up after goals from Tommy Lonergan and Padraig Amond (2) in the first half and although Bohs pulled one back through Dayle Rooney the home side never looked like being caught.
Shelbourne: Beach; Mbeng, Bone (Barrett 71), Casey, Norris (Ledwidge 71); Coote (Moore h-t), McInroy, Henry-Francis (Lunney h-t), Kelly (Jarvis 83); Caffrey; Freitas.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Anang; Redmond, Hoare, Turner; Lennon; Brown, Nugent, Forrester (Breslin 76), McClelland (Baggley 76); Olusanya (Sheridan 66), Keena (Edmondson 60).
Referee: Paul Norton (Dublin).
Attendance: 4,511.
