Shels strike early, hold out easy - December 9, 2000
Bohemians 0 Shelbourne 1
Pat Scully must have thought he was back at Arsenal last night as Shelbourne hammered a nail into Bohemians' title coffin in classic pre-Wenger Gunners style.
It was another case of "One-nil to the Shels", with the champions nicking a goal before Bohemians were mentally out of the dressing room and then demonstrating for the umpteenth time that there is no-one better in the Eircom League at defending a lead.
For Adams and Bould read Scully and McCarthy: the big Shelbourne centre backs gobbled up everything the clueless Gypsies forwards fed them.
Massive respect too to Jim Crawford and Pat Fenlon in the Shels engine room: redundant in attack, they were impregnable in defence.
Shels didn't bother trying to play through midfield. They just humped everything directly up to their livewire frontrunners, Dessie and Richie Baker and Richie Foran.
The ploy worked as early as the second minute. Richie Baker passed the ball through the flat Bohemians back four and Foran ran into finish expertly.
More worryingly for Bohemians, the tactic continued to work all night, with a strangely off-colour Shaun Maher in constant difficutlies.
Roddy Collins though will probably be more worried by his side's lack of inventiveness at the other end. He needs wide players who can go past a full back (veteran Declan Geoghegan wasn't beaten once last night) and more creativity in central midfield, where Kevin Hunt plays the crabwise ball far too often.
Bohemians: Russell, O'Connor, Maher, Hill, Webb, O'Keeffe, Hunt, Caffrey, O'Neill, Crowe, Molloy
Subs: Williamson for O'Neill 22, Markey for O'Keeffe 60
Booked: O'Keeffe, Hill, Hunt
Sent off: Caffrey
Shelbourne: Williams, Heary, McCarthy, Scully, D Geoghegan, R Baker, Crawford, Fenlon, Hutchison, D Baker, Foran
Subs: Keddy for Hutchison 45
Goal: Foran 2 mins
Booked: Crawford, Foran, D Baker
Referee: H Byrne (Dublin)