St Patrick's Athletic (0) - Shelbourne (0)

St Patrick's Athletic 0 - Shelbourne 0

There was no late drama this time as St Patrick's Athletic and Shelbourne played out a scoreless draw in front of a crowd of just over 5,300 at Richmond Park.

Stephen Kenny's side should have been ahead at the break while Shelbourne improved in the second half, but substitutes Mipo Odubeko and Ali Coote spurned great chances to snatch victory.

Joseph Anang denied Odubeko with a superb save before an unmarked Coote got his angles all wrong and headed over in the 90th minute.

After the fireworks of Evan Caffrey and Al-Amin Kazeem last season, this was a much more timid affair with a point this early in the campaign is not the worst result in the world.

Shelbourne played a back five to null the power of the Saints widemen with Mark Coyle acting as a third centre back and the flanks were relatively untouched during the opening half.

St Pat's outnumbered Shelbourne in midfield and Brandon Kavanagh caused the visitors several problems early in the game as he found pockets of space behind JJ Lunney and Kerr McInroy.

Mason Melia, in for injured top scorer Aidan Keena, had the first real chance of the game after his volley from Zach Elbouzedi's corner was blocked before the line by John Martin.

The game sparked into life and Shelbourne orchestrated a free-flowing break which saw Ellis Chapman chop back on the edge of the box before his trickling shot was fingertipped wide by Joseph Anang in the 25th minute.

Saints and Shels has become a high-profile fixture in the league and much of that is due to the profile of manager on the sideline. The first flashpoint came when Rob Hennessey booked Coyle for diving in the area, leaving Damien Duff incensed.

Saints shot several times from outside the box but Kavanagh skied a left-footed effort before Chris Forrester bent a dipping effort narrowly wide before the interval.

St Pat's had a flurry of corners in the first ten minutes after the break but couldn't fashion a chance and it was Ellis Chapman who stung the fingers of Anang after some neat play from Lunney and Harry Wood.

Shelbourne were purring and should have broken the deadlock in the 66th minute. McInroy's ball broke for Odubeko who darted away from Sean Hoare but he chose to strike early and Anang saved brilliantly.

This Dublin Derby fell flat for a while before substitute Kian Leavy was denied a goal against his former employers by a smart smothering stop from Kearns with ten minutes remaining.

Neither side could find the winning goal but Coote was left with his head in his hands after fluffing his lines from close range late on.

© rte.ie

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St Patrick's Athletic 0 - Shelbourne 0

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