St Patrick’s Athletic completed their league fixtures against Shelbourne FC this season with a controversial 2-1 defeat which left the record even steven between Dublin's biggest footballing rivals. Played three, won one each, drew one each and lost one each. Both sides scored 5 goals over the 3 games but in the end only the final league table will seperate these two, with Saint Pats now the raging hot favourites to land the title.
Goals: S Geoghegan, penalty on 10 minutes
Geoghegan sent Shay Kelly the wrong way after Willie Burke was adjudged to have brought down Davy Byrne in the box. Subsequent video evidence proved that the decision was wrong.
J Crawford on 17 minutes, finishing first time from a cross by Peter Hutton.
Colm Foley looped a header past Steve Williams on 33 minutes to reduce the deficit.
Dermot Looney, had this to say about the referee, the Pats fans, the great Pats team and eh....his problems with dandruff or something:
John McDermott - a referee I've felt over the years has been one of the best in Ireland, but over the season I've been changing my mind. He's significantly overweight and was visibly struggling by the end of the match last night. I'm already surrounded by referees so I don't want to hear about the fitness tests yadda yadda yadda. The penalty decision was wrong, several Shels fans I've heard from or spoken to agreed. I believe there was a handball in the leadup to Shels's second goal (a fine goal by the way) by Stephen Geoghegan in the run-up to the goal. Shels' persistent fouling on our attackers was not penalised but that's where it starts getting down to personal opinion and bias so I won't go any further.
Support - Not going to get into the attendance, but Pat's fans just about filled the Riverside with a few more elsewhere, and boy did we create atmosphere. Despite what some of the journalists might think, we remained defiant as fans even when Shels looked well on top at 2-0 up, we sang our hearts out, the posters were generally without the vitriol of the week's comings and goings but still made their point and were pretty funny - we, like the team on the pitch, never gave up and were the most vocal at the final whistle. Fair play to a decent Shels crowd, particularly the Ballybough End in the second half where there were a few chants - the usual Section E crowd were the only ones singing afterwards it seemed, all in all both sets of fans behaved themselves which won't get reported in the senationalist Irish football press but is a credit to us both I think.
On the Pitch - Several excellent individual performances by both teams, Doherty, Geogo and Heary were excellent for Shels, Pat's had great displays by Oso, Paul Marney, Holty, Robbie Mac and, though the majority will disagree with me, Martin Russell. I don't know if Shels do the MOTM like we do and only award it to their own player, but Oso was supreme last night, and the reaction to the announcement by thousands singing "Oso, Oso" spontaneously says it all. An incredibly exciting game for a Pat's or Shels' fan, and a damn fine sight for the neutral I'd hope. We deserved a draw but you can't help but be philosophical about it - my own team hung on this morning (despite my best efforts to cause blunders aplenty) to a 4-3 lead that we could have easily lost. Swings and roundabouts, what goes around etc etc...
Ollie - the latest Dooney shenanigans are a joke, Dundalk are spot on to change the game to a Sunday, its unfortunate that Ollie found out about it before Dundalk got in touch with him but thats a matter between the clubs. Ollie spoke at the NLU Forum about the need to eliminate self-interest (surely one of history's greatest hypocrisies) and also of the need for decent TV coverage and as a member of the FAI's TV Sub-Committee...anyone else and I wouldn't believe it, but the man who makes Liam Lawlor look like Ghandi requires a berth as wide as his arse.
(By the way my new jacket also got burned by the flares and there's a fair bit of damage done to it - it comes about because (a) those flares were brutal (either that or my dandruff problem is really deteriorating) and (b) the lads holding them just throw them on the ground beneath them, beside the jackets on seast, without taking care to ensure the flames are out.
Nevertheless last night ranks up there with the night of Gerry Perry, Cork in 98-99 away and at home, Shels at home earlier this season and maybe the 96 Cup FInal and some others as the best Saints' atmospheres I've experienced and participated in [I wasn;t in Parkhead :-(] - there's no point in letting that go. We have to create atmospheres in Richer, and given the current state of the Shed and the conditions at the Camacside its very unlikely for the less-attendned games - why don't we, the SEI crowd and others, get going in the Shed side of the stand for the Derry game. Yes it's 2EURO more but if we can get a sufficient amount of chanting going, a drummer with rhythm [one of the lads is getting there but apart from him last night had about as much rhythm as my dancing], some decent songs and some proper support we'll enjoy ourselves, hopefully get the crowd in the rest of the stand going, and give some kinda impetus to the team. We've 9 games left, at each one of them we have to make the effort as long as we're still in with a chance of winning the title. Last night gave me as much hope for the future as it did disappointment about the result - let's build on it as fans.)
Shelbourne: Williams; Hutton, Doherty, McCarthy, Heary; R Baker, Byrne, Gannon, Crawford, Fenlon; Geoghegan.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Kelly, Croly, Foley, Maguire, Burke (Harris, 90 mins); McGuinness (McCarthy, 63 mins), Marney (Griffin, 90 mins), Osam, Russell; Mbabazi, Holt.
Referee: J McDermott (sponsored by Ollie Byrne who wined and dined several top referees at a recent dinner function with Mick McCarthy - we're not implying anything here by this of course, its perfectly ethical isn't it? After all Dermot Keely says the league is corrupt, we now know what he meant).
LATEST NEWS:
Shels and Rovers are apparently joining forces again in a bid to oust Saint Pats out of the title race through off the field activities. The latest behind the scene deals between the homeless and the fanless revolve around ground sharing. More to follow.
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