Shelbourne showed their top of the table credentials this evening as they breezed to a 2-0 victory over Cork City at Turners Cross in the SSE Airtricity First Division.
The ever-threatening Ryan Brennan opened the scoring for Shels after 15 minutes while his early second half penalty sealed the win for the visitors.
Cork enjoyed most of the ball after conceding their first but lacked a real cutting edge in front of goal and barely threatened an organised Shels defence.
City came out attacking the visitors but it was noticeable how comfortable the Shels’ defence dealt with the home side’s advances. Shelbourne were content to work the ball from the back and were soon the side on top with a far larger share of possession.
They soon began to put the Cork defence under pressure and came close with several attempts. Michael O’Connor headed over on 6 minutes while Shane Farrell’s shot from an excellently worked set-piece play was deflected wide by a City defender.
The Cork defence held out admirably given that they had a number of absences but the visitors continued to up the intensity.
It looked more and more likely that Shels would open scoring and when Shane Farrell crossed the ball across the Cork goal, the prolific Ryan Brennan did just that as the City defence scrambled across to try and block him.
Following the goal, the visitors were content to sit back and hit Cork on the counter, confident that they could deal with any threat posed by City, who soon began to enjoy more of the ball.
The Shels backline in particular looked a level above and City talisman Cian Murphy was denied any space in front of goal, instead ushered out to the wings where he was forced to become a provider for the Cork players permitted into the goal area.
Cian Bargary who looked most threatening for Cork but the side could not fabricate any good chances and had to go into the break a goal down.
The Leesiders came out for the second half in an energetic manner and dominated the opening minutes but again could not create anything that came close to equalising. Shelbourne continued to looked solid at the back and once again preferred to act on the counter.
Shels strategy proved successful when a long ball from the Shelbourne defence found Michael O’Connor in the Cork box and the forward was taken down to win a penalty on 50 minutes.
Ryan Brennan stepped up to the spot and calmly slotted away his second of the evening to put the Reds 2-0 up on the home side.
Shels further retreated as the game wore on, trusting as ever in their back 4, as Cork dominated play for the remainder of the game. The Rebel Army were persistent in pushing forward and Bargary proved a real threat down the right wing while Aaron Bolger dictated play from midfield.
ity, however, could not create any clear chances and barring a sliding Barry Coffey effort mid-way through the half, they could not break down a Shelbourne defence that looked as if it would be at home in the Premier Division.
