Shelbourne manager Owen Heary was understandably pleased with the performance of his nine men as they held off Longford Town to earn a 0-0 draw at Tolka Park on Friday. Having been beaten 4-1 by Cabinteely in their last outing and going down 1-0 to
Shelbourne manager Owen Heary was understandably pleased with the performance of his nine men as they held off Longford Town to earn a 0-0 draw at Tolka Park on Friday.
Having been beaten 4-1 by Cabinteely in their last outing and going down 1-0 to Wexford before that, Heary was happy that his players upped their game despite their numerical disadvantage.
“After our last two performances where we didn’t put a shift in and we didn’t work hard enough to getting two players sent off tonight and the nine players working their socks off,” the Shels boss said.
“Everything we’ve asked for in the last couple of weeks was there with the nine men tonight.”
Despite being two men down, Shels limited their visitors to shots from outside the box and Longford struggled to get beyond the home defence.
“They had a couple of shots from distance, one that hit the bar, but other than that we were sort of safe,” Heary added.
Heary’s side were well organised throughout the second half and looked comfortable playing deep and looking to contain Longford.
The Shels boss admitted that he does train the team for situations wherein they have a man down.
“We have a game where you have a man down and you try to work, but we don’t train with two men down. Sometimes we do put Liam [Kelly] into training to make up the numbers so maybe that is like playing with two men down.
The result leaves Shelbourne in sixth place with 16 points from their 15 games and still one point behind Longford in fifth.
