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Delaney stars in Tolka Clash

Dean Delaney won man of the match tonight and kept Shels from losing their lead on a few occasions tonight, with a superb performance in his third game this season.

The game started brightly with the distance sounds of Bono serving as a vocal backdrop for the small Tolka Park crowd. It was Longford who went closest first. Davy Byrne’s rasping shot coming off the crossbar and deflecting over after 8 minutes. Jason Byrne was next to have an opportunity in front of goal but O’Brien easily gathered his header.

On 23 minutes, Delaney was forced to pull off a tremendous one handed save from a long-range shot. The rebound fell to Andy Myler yards from the Shels goal. Delaney magnificently saved his close range shot.

It was at the beginning of the second half that Shels took the lead. Glen Crowe ran down an attempted clearance from a Longford defender. He laid the ball off to Joseph Ndo who slid the ball through to Jason Byrne. Byrne managed to turn his man and shoot home past Stephen O’Brien for to score his 100th League goal and his 50th for Shelbourne.

Shels held out in a game that could of easily gone the other way. Only for a very good performance from Delaney and things could have been different. Shels introduced Fitzpatrick, Hoolahan and Cawley in the second half. Longford applied a good amount of pressure and often times were the team on top. But leagues are won on coming out of games like this evening with three points. A clean sheet has been hard come by in recent games so it was nice to see no goals conceded tonight.

So 6 points out of 6 and with Derry City at home in Tolka Park on Friday, Shels have another opportunity to keep the pressure on League leaders, Cork City, who play UCD in Belfield on the same night. Belfield has been a tough place to go this season to get maximum points. Lets hope that remains the case.

Shels 1 – 0 Longford.