Shelbourne met Longford Town for the second time in four days, and managed to reach the quarter-finals of the U-17 Mark Farren Cup with a 3-2 victory.
Shels did take a 3-0 lead before a nervy finish, as goals from Deiric Hyland and a brace from Jordan Adeyemo had them fully in control. However two goals inside the last four minutes left a bit of a sour taste for boss Stephen Finn, even if he was delighted with the win over a good Longford side.
Finn said, “It was a good game. Longford had some players involved that had been with their U-19s at the weekend and didn’t play on Saturday, so were stronger again for that.”
“It was tight enough early on and Longford had a couple of shots which our keeper Jordan Walker dealt with well. He had an excellent game overall.”
“We took a while to get into our flow but once we did start knocking it about we began to create chances. William Hondermarck did well to set up Deiric Hyland for our first goal after half an hour, then William sent Jordan Adeyemo through and he won a penalty five minutes before half-time, which Jordan converted so that gave us the platform to take control of the game.”
“The third goal was really good play which saw William spread the ball out to Dylan Connoilly on the right and he fed Ali Reghba and his low cross was turned in by Jordan Adeyemo for a really good team goal.”
“We may have added more as William then hit the post with ten minutes left. We fell asleep at the end conceding twice in the last four minutes.”
“The first one was from a quickly taken free out wide which was finished well by the Longford player, and then they scored a really well struck free-kick to make it a tighter affair than it needed to be.”
“Overall I think Longford are a tough nut to crack for any team in this league, so I’m pleased to progress and we look forward to a very tough trip to Sligo Rovers on Saturday.”
Longford’s James Dermody said, “Shelbourne’s attacking unit are very strong and that was the difference between the two sides”
“We had some excellent opportunities to take the lead in the opening exchanges but really couldn’t take our chances.”
“Individual mistakes and quality finishing was the difference between us, you can’t give their attacking unit any space or they will punish you”
“We showed great spirit to come back and make it a close contest. We worked really hard and left it all on the pitch”
“All of us here at Longford Town wish Stephen and his Squad all the best in the quarter finals”