A first half brilliant individual piece of skill from Noelle Murray after 30 minutes helped Shelbourne advance to the EVOKE.ie Women's FAI Cup Final, with a 1-0 win over Galway WFC this afternoon.

Murray left the Tribeswomen defenders in her wake, to clinch a goal worthy of winning any semi-final. In the end it proved enough for Shelbourne to get past a resilient Galway side and clear the path into the decider.

The visitors started the contest rapidly, not giving the home team any time or space on the ball. 

This led to a frantic first ten minutes, both sides playing the ball quickly well and providing a truly end-to-end game. 

Shelbourne eventually slowed the pace of the match down trying to push the Westerners back into their final third. 

Good Shels attacking play was not leading to much efforts on goal and their few set pieces were well dealt with by the away side. 

Galways defence was on top for the first half, relying on quick transitions and long balls getting in behind the Shelbourne defence they got up the pitch well but no major chances. 

The Corribsiders rear-guard was looking like it would be difficult if not impossible to break down, but up stepped Murray in the with an unbelievable bit of individual play retrieving the ball in the air outside the Galway box flicking the ball over the head of one Tribeswoman defender, followed quickly by another juggle over the head of a WFC player to leave Noelle one-on-one with the keeper as she finished coolly into the back of the net. A goal worthy of any semi-final. 

The Westerners got more adventurous after going a goal down but failed to work Amanda Budden in goal and the sides went in 1-0 at the break.

The second half started much like the first, both sides going back and forth creating little in terms of chances.

Galway had created some half chances just before the hour mark, really starting to build into the game. 

Unfortunately for Stephen Lally's charges, Julie-Ann Russell had a nightmare four minutes being booked in the 63rd minute and again in the 67th seeing red and the away side were down to 10.

The Dublin side took control after this stage and tried to manage the game, Galway had a frantic end to the match throwing everything they could at the Shelbourne defence but inevitably came up short. 

The hosts will be delighted to have gained passage to the cup final their first since 2016 as they now can dream of lifting the cup to finish their season with silverware.