Shels See Bit O’ Red As Sligo Rovers Retain Ford FAI Cup In Penalty Shoot Out Thriller

In thier third FAI Ford Cup final appearance in a row, Sligo Rovers have retained the FAI Cup with once again a dramatic penalty shootout, the match wasnt without its controversy as referee Richie Winter wrongly dismissed Barry Clancy for diving towards the end of the first half, indeed Clancy should have been awarded a penalty, this action from Winter who is no stranger to ruining games with shameful decisions had ruined this game right away with a horrible decision that will no doubt leave Clancy devastated for a good long while.

Despite wave after wave of strong Sligo Rovers attack which was extremely well defended by Shelbourne with the likes of Sean Byrne and Ian Ryan at the back, Shelbourne took the lead on the half hour mark when Philly Hughes put the ball past Brendan Clarke after a lovely cross in from Brendan McGill, this sent the Shelbourne support behind the goal wild, the opening stages of the game had brought about a sense of agony after the goal there was ecstasy. Moments before the goal Barry Clancy had almost netted a goal but his effort cracked off the crossbar.

The game changer came 5 minutes later though with the shocking red card decision from referee Richie Winter,as Clancy was closing in on the Sligo Rovers goal he was pulled back by John Russell, Winter blew his whistle and the stadium thought the penalty had been awarded, instead Winter pulled out a second yellow card for Clancy and gave him his marching orders, looking over and over again at the replay, this was not the right decision.

Shelbourne were just happy to see the dressing room at half time taking in a 1-0 lead after they held off some more heavy Sligo attack but with 1 man down what could Alan Matthews say to his team to get them to keep up the good work and on the flip side what could Paul Cook say to his side to get them into the game.

Whatever Cook did say at the break, it had a bigger effect than Matthews team talk as nearly almost straight away Sligo were on the scoreboard,  after waiting patiently for the right gap to open up the ball was spread to Iarfhlaith Davoran who slotted past Dean Delaney for his first ever goal for the champions.

From there both sides had an equal amount of time in eachothers area and at one stage it looked like a winner was in site for the Bitt O Red but all credit to Alan Matthews side for digging deep on such a big stage for them infront of over 21,000 fans at the Lansdowne Road venue, this game was going for extra time.

Extra time brought nothing more than the 90 minutes had not and despite even more Sligo dominance 10 man Shelbourne were able to hold on and equally for Sligo they were well able to hold off the Dromcondra sides efforts and forced the dreaded penalty shoot out, right before the end though, Sligo’s secret weapon Ciaran Kelly was introduced into the game, he hasnt featured for Sligo all season but after his display on the same stage last season it would have been too much of a risk to leave him out.

He saved two spot kicks from Dawson and James and left Raffaele Cretaro to step up and slot home to send the Sligo support into raptures.

On paper Sligo probably deserve the victory but things could have been so different had referee Richie Winter not made such a dire mistake. One hopes that the referees assessor will have a good look back at tonights game before speaking to Mr Winter about his performance, certainly a questionable one.

Daniel "Pitchside" Pitcher Twitter: @DanFM104Sport About: Dan "Pitchside" Pitcher provides insight and commentary as the chief soccer and rugby correspondent for Sportspeak.