Just 24 days ago, Shelbourne had seemingly had the cog of their machine taken away from them in Damien Duff. Since then, Joey O’Brien has taken over, brought them on a 3 game unbeaten run in the league and most importantly guided them past Linfield and give them a 3 game shootout of achieving the holy grail for any League of Ireland side in Europe with the jackpot of league phase football.
Joey O’Brien has brought a calmness to the club, taken away all the noise and speculation Duff brought and ultimately he’s given his players the freedom to express themselves on the European stage and win a 2 legged tie against rivals form the north.
Starting Lineups
O’Brien made one change from the first leg. Tyreek Wilson came in for the Liverpool loanee James Norris. More importantly, he stuck with the same attack that started the first leg and looked so dominant. Mipo Odubeko was chosen over Sean Boyd from the start.
It was almost a disastrous start for the Ringsend side. Kirk Millar swung in a free kick from the right which found Ethan McGee who headed across goal to Ben Hall who really should’ve turned home from just a couple of yards out but his headed effort went wide.
Shels eventually settled after a bright Linfield start. Their first half chance came after 15 minutes where star of the show from the first leg Harry Wood played a searching ball over the top from just inside the Linfield half. Tyreek Wilson came darting in from the left flank in towards goal and Wood’s ball met his head but the header was tame and safely rolled through for Chris Johns in the Linfield goal.
After an even enough opening to proceedings it was Shels that drew first blood on the night in the 24th minute. Harry Wood twisted and turned inside the Linfield box and forced a good save from the ‘keeper. The ball flew up into the air and JJ Lumney rose the highest to nod it down to Ali Coote who showed wonderful composure to get it onto his right foot and drill it into the bottom left hand corner.
Coote struggled to find a regular starting spot under Duff but always made a difference off the bench. So much so, Duff once labelled him “the best sub in world football” after he rescued a point at Turner’s Cross earlier in the season.
Both sides nearly gave up a couple of easy chances from miscontrolling the ball in their own half. Connor Kearns nearly did just that in the 12th minute, as he was trying to play a pass he actually ended up taking a heavy touch that fell to the striker Matt Fitzpatrick about 30 yards out but his effort was disappointingly quite far wide. Kearns was fortunate, fortune that would not last much longer for the Shels No.1.
He had gone down a couple of times in the first half hour but went down for good in the 31st minute. He has struggled at times of late but it was still no doubt a blow for Shels to lose him so early. The seriousness of the injury was unclear to see. He was replaced by Lorcan Healy who isn’t a stranger to being tasked with replacing Connor Kearns in big games. He was their stand in goalkeeper for the majority of the run in last season in Kearns absence.
It wasn’t the only Shels change in the first half as Sean Gannon who may have been slightly disappointed not to start came on in place of captain Mark Coyle in the 22nd minute after the Shels skipper appeared to pick up some sort of a knock. Gannon slotted in at the right side of the Shels back 3 just where Coyle was and he didn’t limit them from having the flexibility of moving him into midfield when Shels were in controlled possession. Gannon played that role surprisingly just as good if not better than Coyle.
The first half ended in quite chaotic fashion. In the 2nd minute of 6 added on, Kirk Millar’s cross from a short corner was aimed at Ben Hall who challenged Wilson at the back post. There was some contact on Wilson from Hall but not enough for a foul and Tyreek Wilson’s arm was up and he was penalised for a handball by Premier League referee, Andy Madley. Following a brief check from VAR, the former Dundalk man and returnee for Linfield on the night, Chris Shields calmly sent Healy the wrong way to get Linfield back within a goal of the League of Ireland champions.
The drama for the half was not done there though, Shelbourne took a really well worked corner right off the training ground. Wood took it short to Wilson who played it back to Wood who spotted and picked out Kerr McInroy peeling inside from the back post. McInroy hit a somewhat scuffed shot into the far corner but none of those players in red cared one bit as they raced over to the 1,500 odd fans that traveled up from Dublin thinking they had restored their two goal cushion. VAR however, had other ideas. Andy Madley was sent over to the screen to take a second look at a very minimal shirt pull from Paddy Barrett at the back post. Shels were incensed and struggled to clear the following Linfield attack.
Halftime arguably came at a good time for Shels who looked like they had gotten wound up by the disallowed goal. It was a much more even game than the 1st leg in the first half. Shels still looking dangerous but Linfield still definitely playing their part going the other way.
The second half started in a similar cagey fashion with both sides bracing themselves for one last push in the last 3rd of the game.
On 63 minutes, Linfield suffered a big blow. Mipo Odubkeo was played through on goal, he burst past Ben Hall and Linfield’s big centre half felt he had no choice but to bring the former West Ham and Manchester United man down. Mipo tried to stay on his feet amidst the stumble but eventually realised the prospect of their opponents being reduced to 10 and went down.
Shelbourne expectedly grew in control from there against a tired and depleted Linfield outfit. The game took up a pattern similar to the 1st leg with Shels having the majority of possession, suffocating any attacks Linfield mustered and getting Harry Wood more prominent in the game. It was also similar to last week in the sense that Shels seemed reluctant to take shots on goal. They were trying to walk the ball into the net it seemed!
Sean Boyd was eventually introduced alongside Odubeko on 80 minutes in place of goalscorer on the night Ali Coote. James Norris also came on for Tyreek Wilson.
Linfield eventually found a second wind in the final 5 minutes of the 90. Kieran Offord once again came on and made an impact. He forced a fine save from Lorcan Healy on 84.
Shels had opportunities on the break in the closing stages, the biggest one was through Mipo Odubeko who just couldn’t get the ball onto his favoured right foot after being played in by his strike partner Sean Boyd.
Shels saw it out in the end to allow Joey O’Brien, his old fashioned stopwatch he had on the touchline, his coaching staff supporters and history making players to share a collective sigh of relief after securing a deserved win over two legs to set up a Champions League 2nd qualifying round tie against Qarabag of Azerbaijan.
Man of the match: Ali Coote
Referee: Andy Madley