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Shels Head Coach Ian Morris said he was delighted to get all three points Friday night in “a roller-coaster of a game” away to Galway United.

Shelbourne came from two goals down to score three in nine second-half minutes courtesy of goals from Ciaran Kilduff (2) and Karl Moore.

“They got two goals that if the two Galway lads tried to hit again, I don’t think they’d go in as they did.

“We went in at half time and we’ve always had that belief, which is something we’ve instilled from the beginning,” Morris said.

“We just had to keep plugging away. We know we have the fitness levels and we know we have the quality.

“So we had just keep doing what we had been practicing and hopefully it will pay off and thankfully it did,” Morris told The Soccer Show podcast.

In his first game in charge Morris said the Reds were up against a “really hungry competitive Galway United side that didn’t give us an inch.”

However, he was delighted to see the fruits of a squad with “quality and the depth” which brings the side competitiveness.

“Everyone knows there is someone else there, that if you’re not doing your job properly there’s someone else who can come in quite easily. They have to be at it every training session and every game,” he said.

Morris also seemed comfortable with praise being heaped on the Reds before and after the league opener.

“If you’re favorites, you’re doing something right, we were looking for three points and we’ve managed to do that the hard way.

“It’s three points on the board and that’s all that it will be down in the newspaper tomorrow as. We’ll be looking into preparing from Saturday for the Cabinteely game next Friday. Its good for us momentum-wise but it’s a long year,” he said.

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GALWAY UNITED 2 (Colin Kelly 3′, Vinny Faherty 15′ )

SHELBOURNE 3 (Ciarán Kilduff 74′, 84′ Karl Moore 82′)

Match report courtesy of sseairtricityleague.ie,

A remarkable opening night of First Division football at Eamonn Deacy Park saw Shelbourne score three goals in a nine-minute spell to come from behind and beat Galway United.

A brace from Ciaran Kilduff as well as a strike from Karl Moore were enough to outdo first-half United strikes from Vinny Faherty and Colin Kelly.

The hosts started the brightest as Kelly netted in the fourth minute with a spectacular long-range effort after a poor clearance from Dean Delany.

In the 18th minute, Faherty produced something similar – a clever lob from 30 yards – that provided breathing room.

After the restart, though, Ian Morris’ troops looked re-born. Controlling possession and creating havoc down the flanks, they took the contest to United with three goals in a nine-minute spell.

Moore assisted Kilduff in the 74th minute with a decent goal, before the winger got himself on the scoresheet when he connected with a delectable Conan Byrne cross from the right. Then, in dramatic fashion, Kilduff popped up a minute later to steal all three points.

Galway United: Kevin Horgan, Stephen Walsh, Adam Rooney, Marc Ludden, Christopher Horgan, Wilson Waweru (Shane Doherty 70′), Maurice Nugent Conor Melody 68′), Colin Kelly (Matthew Barrett 84′), Mark Hannon, Conor Barry, Vinny Faherty.

Subs not used: James Tierney, Cian Murphy, Dara Coltelloe, Joe Collins, Matthew Barrett.

Shelbourne: Dean Delany, John Ross Wilson, Lorcan Fitzgerald, Luke Byrne, Derek Prendergast, Oscar Brennan, Alex O’Hanlon (Sean Quinn 51′), Ryan Brennan, Shane Farrell (Conan Byrne 45′), Dayle Rooney (Karl Moore 70′), Ciarán Kilduff

Subs not used: Colin McCabe, Aidan Friel, Daniel McKenna, Flavio Marku.

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Shelbourne have signed goalkeeper Colin McCabe ahead of the start of the 2019 season.

Colin’s last club was Bohemians, who he signed for in August 2017, following his return home after four seasons with Celtic U 17s – U20s. During his time at Parkhead he went out on loan on two occasions to Stenhousemuir, where he made 27 first team appearances.

Colin made his senior debut for Bohemians at the end of the 2017 season, in a 3-1 league win over Finn Harps.

He found it difficult to make a breakthrough to the first team at Dalymount due to the form of Shane Supple, though he did make appearances in the EA Cup (2), the IRN-BRU Cup (1) and three League appearances – Against St. Pats (3-1 win), Waterford (3-1 loss) and Sligo Rovers (1-1 draw)

Colin has International Caps at U17 and U19 levels.

He played the second half of last Fridays pre-season 7-2 win over Ballymun United at Tolka Park

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Shelbourne played their final pre-season match on Friday against Ballymun United in Tolka Park

SHELBOURNE 7 (James English 1′, 3′, 34′, 41′, 77′; Dayle Rooney 7′, 25′)

BALLYMUN UTD 2 (Tyrick Reilly 55′, Kaitho Arimoto 61′)

Shelbourne: Dean Delany, Lorcan Fitzgerald, Luke Byrne, Aidan Friel, Alex O’Hanlon, Karl Moore, Daniel McKenna, James English, Greg Moorhouse, Flavio Marku, Dayle Rooney.

Substitutes: Colin McCabe, Oscar Brennan, Ryan Brennan, Shane Farrell, John Ross Wilson, Conan Byrne, Sean Quinn, Darragh Noone.

Ballymun Utd: Stephen Cashin, Aidan Sullivan, Jamie Byrne, Shane O’Keeffe, Ryan Scully, Tyrick Reilly, Keith McMahon, Peter O’Reilly, Keith Dawson. Cian Flynn, Kaitho Arimoto.

Substitutes: David Lacey, Danny Murphy, Christopher Doolin, Josh Scully, Danny Giffney, Dylan Fox, Robert Proudfoot.

Referee : Paul Tuite. Assistants : Shane O’Brien & Daniel Murphy

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New Shels defender Luke Byrne has said he is looking to bring back “some special nights at Tolka Park” as the new season edges ever closer.

Byrne, who moved from Shamrock Rovers during the off-season, said after a “tough” pre-season, “all eyes are on next Friday” against Galway United.

“The first thing that drew me to Shels was the size and stature of the club, then you look to see if we have a chance, and of course we do with the squad we have,” he said.

The 25-year-old told shelbournefc.ie that he joined the club after finishing his contract with Rovers and was attracted to “the whole package” that the Reds offered him.

“The way the club was going was just really appealing. First and foremost, it’s a huge club with a very competitive squad that I think we should do well with this year.

“We’ve got a young ambitious manager who is encouraging me to continue studying and offering me the opportunity to coach as well so it’s just a really good package,” he said.

With Shels being his local League of Ireland club, Tolka Park brings back fond memories for Byrne who is looking to create more memories for the club this year.

“It’s the first ground my Da ever brought me to, to see a Shels Cork game when I was younger, so when you weigh it all up, it was the best move for me and I’m delighted to have the opportunity.

“When you retire you look back at the memories of your career, hopefully you have medals and I really want to start collecting them. It would be brilliant,” he added.

Byrne believes the atmosphere among the players has been excellent during the off season and Head Coach Ian Morris has cultivated an exciting spirit for the year ahead.

“Everyone has commented on it. There’s no one swimming against the tide. I’ve been in dressing rooms before where there’s lads not buying into what you do and it’s very difficult to include them.

“There’s a good mix of experience and young lads who are new in the door, so there’s lot of older lads who can guide the young ones.

“There’s a couple of them in particular who have a lot of ability and if we can help them in any way, then we should have a really good player on our hands,” he said.

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Shelbourne’s new Head Coach Ian Morris has said he “can’t wait to get going” with the new SSE Airtricity League First Division just days away.

Morris told Shelbournefc.ie that he is expecting a clean bill of health for their first game away to Galway United Friday week.

“We should have everyone back fit for the Galway game and that’s going to be a massive boost for us.

“Between the competition for places, the quality that’s due to come back and new signings. That’s the real positive,” he said.

“We’ve had a bit of an up-and-down pre-season in terms of getting bodies on the pitch.

“It’s frustrating but it has given us an opportunity to bring some of the under-19 players into pre-season who have done excellent and it just shows the quality at the club that’s coming through,” Morris added.

Morris said players like defender Dan Byrne and midfielder Conan Byrne have already been back in training last week and should be available for the Galway game.

“Being without a number of key players, they’re going to be like new signings coming into the team anyways. I’m quite happy where we are,” he said.

Morris says the First Division will be more competitive than ever with “five or six pushing each other” all the way.

“You have a lot of players coming into the Premier Division from different countries and players from England coming back, so with Premier Division players coming into the First Division, that is going to increase the standard drastically.

“To single out one club, no, there will be five or six and it just depends who gets off the mark quickly and can maintain that,” the new Head Coach said.

“I think everyone is looking around at how competitive the league is going to be. That was usually the problem with going up as well. Maybe it’s not competitive constantly and you’re not being tested properly, but this season is going to be difficult.”

Morris says the Shels squad for 2019 is nearly complete but hasn’t ruled out any more signings if the chance presents itself. “If something comes up we’ll have a look at it properly,” he said.

With Lee Steacy moving to Longford the opportunity has presented itself for one of the underage Goalkeepers to step-up into the senior team alongside Reds legend Dean Delany.

“It’s very difficult to get a so-called experienced number one in. Luckily enough we have the goalkeeper of the year (Dean Delany) with us and young Imrich Toth and Jack Lydon have been excellent,” he said.

In his first season in charge, Morris says he has “been loving it” and says the pre-season has “thrown up a lot more information than I thought we would have.”

With player availability and differing pre-season results, he believes the standard of the opposition faced in the off-season will benefit the club hugely going forward.

“We want to get back to the level of playing the likes of Waterford and Pats every week. That’s the goal we all want to achieve so I wanted to test us.

“So it’s shown us certain things that games against weaker opposition wouldn’t have shown us if we didn’t play in games that tested us so well.

“We’ve gone through videos and we’ve looked at different things in training. Its positive and I’d like to think if you’ve seen us in pre-season you would have seen a drastic improvement in performance, ” he added.

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SHELBOURNE 0

WATERFORD 3 (Rory Feely 41′, Dean Walsh 43′, 75′)

Shelbourne : Dean Delany, Michael McHugh (Daniel McKenna 85′), Lorcan Fitzgerald, Oscar Brennan, Alex O’Hanlon, Dayle Rooney, Ryan Brennan (Sean Quinn 66′), Shane Farrel (Greg Moorhouse 72′)l, Luke Byrne, Derek Prendergast, Ciarán Kilduff

Subs not used : Imrich Toth, James English, Craig Giles, Flavio Marku, Rasaq Alamu,

Waterford ; Matt Connor (Paul Martin 78′) Bastien Hery (Regix Madika 46′), Maxin Kouogun, Dean O’Halloran (Jack O’Donnell 58′), Rory Feely (Cian Collins 46′), Kenny Brown, Jack Larkin, Cory Galvin (Darragh Power 69′), John Martin, Shane Griffin, Dean Walsh

Subs not used : Kevin Lynch, Shane Duggan,

Referee: Tomás Connolly, Assistants: Wayne McDonnell, Chris Campbell