A match review written by Matt O’Rourke
It’s another day living in a “Shelbourne Wonderland” as Shelbourne are victorious in the North Dublin Derby away to Bohemians. 2 late goals, a peno from Jarvis and a header from Gav Molloy send the Auld Reds home with another 3 points.
Some bad refereeing decisions but overall an away day to remember.
Let’s talk about the first half:
We started very well. We had a near “goal of the year” by Paddy Barret but Chorazka tips it over the post. Apart from this we see nothing major occur, just a few scary attacks by Bohemians, particularly a scary free kick in the 8th minute, and some great build up play and attacks by the Reds. Sully was booked in the 34th minute. Towards the end of the half Bohs have a good throw in which turns into a shot but Conor Kearns knocks it out for a corner which they couldn’t make any use of. First half was good for us.
We opened the second half with a slow start, at halftime Duffer made the change and threw Evan Caffery on for John O’Sullivan but Bohs got the better of us for the first few minutes while we were waking up. A scary attack sees Kirk take a shot on Kearns in the 49th minute on the left side of the goal but Conor Kearns makes light work of it.
In the 57th Wilson takes a free kick and whips it in the box but unfortunately we couldn’t get a good enough header on it and Chorazka saves the ball. In the 64th Duffer decided it was time to put on Sean Boyd and subbed him on for John Martin. Up to the 76th where Jarvis receives the ball on the left side outside the box, cuts in and gets space , shoots but again Chorazka gets his hands on it.
In the 79th Cian Byrne fouls Sean Boyd by pushing him over and the ref calls for a peno, Will Jarvis lines up for it. Jarvis slots the ball bottom left and Chorazka dives the opposite way , this put the reds 1-0 up and sends the away end into madness.
In the 84th Duffer takes out Jarvis and Burt and puts on Farrell and Smith. Nearing the end of the 84th minute we get another dangerous set piece, Tyreke takes it again, whips it in and it finds Gav Molloy for a header and he gets it past Chorazka and that puts the reds firmly in control away from home, 2-0 to the Auld Reds. This goal just sent the away end into absolute chaos and madness.
It was frankly one of the best away days I’ve ever been to. After the goal from Gav, Bohs fans started leaving and by full time Dalymount was practically empty. Fans flooded out of the Jodi and Des Kelly stands.
Due to the celebrations, the fence in front of the stand collapsed. This is a photo roughly 5 minutes after full time.
This delayed the game for a good while to ensure the safety of an injured steward and the game got back under way, and the full time whistle was blown roughly at the 98th minute , 2-0 to Shelbourne away in Dalymount and another 3 point.
This win keeps us top of the league, ahead of Derry by 2 points. This was another key win that we needed and although we left it quite late, it was a strong win.
Now I’d like to briefly touch on player performances:
If I have to pick my man of the match it goes to Gav Molloy easily. He had an outstanding performance and played very well. His contribution was unreal, his challenges were very strong and at multiple times stopping possible goal scoring opportunities for Bohs, and of course his goal which secured us 3 points on the road.
I also thought a strong contender for this was Jarvis, as he played well all game, some of his attacking play was unreal, and his peno was very good for us aswell.
Another player I thought did very well was Liam Burt, he was creating great attacking play and at points he just had the Bohs defence on strings, easily using his skills to manoeuvre around their players.
To add to this, captain Mark Coyle had a great game as well, putting in a strong shift with some great challenges.
Of course it was Bohs vs Shels so we did see a few scraps between players. Nothing major occurred to be deadly honest. It was a proper North Dublin Derby, Bohs receiving 7 yellow cards while the Reds got 5.
After the game the walk back to Drumcondra was nice, plenty of chants on the way back.
Overall, I thought we had a very strong performance with a few minor exceptions. Now we roll onto our second away game in a row where we’ll face Pats in inchicore, which will be a very tight game in my opinion.
I’d like to thank you all for reading, and lest we forget, “Shelbourne can celebrate all they want”.
UTFR