Month: August 2020

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Shelbourne FC is delighted to announce the signing of Mark Byrne after the Dubliner’s four years at League One Gillingham. 

The versatile Byrne who can play in midfield or at right-back joins the Reds after training with the Tolka Park side.

Byrne, who has made 157 appearances for the Gills and was named the club’s Player of the Year in 2017/18, joins Shels for the remainder of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division season. 

Byrne joined Nottingham Forest from Crumlin United in 2007, and went on to enjoy spells at Barnet and Newport County before signing for Gillingham four years ago.

He scored his first goal for the Gills in a 2–1 win over Premier League side Watford in the second round of the 2016–17 EFL Cup.

The Kilnamanagh native spent two years at Newport County, the second of them as club captain. 

Shels boss Ian Morris said: “I am absolutely delighted to have a player of Marks quality and experience with us.”

“Mark is a versatile player who can play in midfield, full back or out wide. He will go straight into the match day squad for tonight (against Shamrock Rovers).

“Mark has played over 400 games in England. That is a testament to the attitude and quality Mark possesses,” he added.

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By Pat Cordelle

Tommy Carroll made his debut for Shelbourne aged just 15, alongside his elder brother Eddie. During his seven years with the Reds, he won the FAI Youth Cup, League Championship, FAI Cup as well as the Leinster Senior Cup and the Dublin City Cup. When Tony Dunne left Shels to join Manchester United immediately after the 1960 FAI Cup Final Tommy Carroll made the right full back position his own. 

Up to the time he left Tolka Park, he was regarded by many as the best full back in the league. Representative honours followed with two amateur international caps against a Great Britain Olympic team in the 1959/60 season, with Ireland losing at home and away. Between 1960 and 1963, he made seven Inter-League appearances, with just two draws and no wins in the seven games. 

In his final Inter-League appearance against the Scottish League in 1962/63 played in Glasgow, the League of Ireland were crushed and humiliated 11-0. In 1964 he decided to leave Shels and surprisingly try his luck in England with non-league side Cambridge City. He played in the first ever under 23 International game in 1966.

At the end of the 1965/66 season he moved to Ipswich Town in the old second division for a fee of £1,500 sterling. He played for Ipswich at right full back for six seasons and helped the Tractor Boys to promotion to the First Division in his first season. 

On and off the field, he developed a very good relationship with a Scot by the name of Bill Baxter. Team captain, long serving Baxter was a tough rugged centre back who joined Ipswich in 1960 and was a fan’s favourite and hero worshipped at Portman Road. However, as so often happens at a football club, a change of manager can easily change the dynamics at the club. Bobby Robson was appointed manager of ITFC in 1969 and it was there he established his reputation as a top class manager.

However, very soon cracks began to appear in the relationship between the manager in his dealings with Tommy Carroll and Baxter. The unwillingness of the pair to adapt to the new training methods and Carroll’s ongoing requests for new improved terms to his contract was at the heart of the problem. Robson described the Irishman’s conduct with regard to his contract as a bit obstreperous.

Carroll considered the new contract offer not enough and his manner became moody and disobedient. Baxter for his part was not interested in new things on the training field and neither tried to adapt. 

Both players were dropped from first team action. Later, it was claimed that the pair were caught laughing and wanted to drink a toast to Stoke’s FA Cup victory over Ipswich. Finally things came to a head when, on a Friday the day before a league game, Carroll and Baxter returned to the changing room after training. Carroll, noticing that he had not been selected for the next game,  ripped the team sheet off the notice board and thrust it in Robson’s face and told the manager where to stick his team.

All of a sudden violent blows were exchanged and the Ipswich Assistant Manager, Cyril Lea, jumped to the defence of Robson and Baxter immediately joined Carroll in the fray. We now had the Irishman, the Englishman, the Welshman (Lea is Welsh) and the Scotsman fighting. What happened next was described by the local hacks as something akin to a serious bar room brawl. 

The upshot of it all was both Carroll and Baxter were suspended for a couple of weeks, transfer listed and told to keep away from the training ground. Months after being frozen out at Ipswich, Baxter was transferred to Hull City for £11,000 sterling and Carroll to Birmingham City for £20,000 sterling. Ipswich Town were in no mood to facilitate a quick transfer until they got their asking price. 

Given that Carroll had cost just £1,500 and had given the club a good six years service, Ipswich made themselves a tidy profit of £18,500. In November 1971, Tommy signed for Birmingham City after an initial one month’s loan period. In an interview given to the Irish Independent at the time, Carroll claimed that the whole thing was blown out of proportion. 

Nevertheless, Carroll was a very bitter and lonely man at the time. Bitter at the length of the suspension imposed by Robson, because he was not allowed to attend the ground for training. Robson for his part stated in a documentary about his life in football-Just Call Me Bobby- and in his Autobiography-Farewell but not Goodbye- expresses his deep regret about the whole situation. He said he acted as he did otherwise his authority would have been undermined. He also acknowledged that both Carroll and Baxter were very good players.

Carroll remained at Birmingham until 1973 and helped the Blues to promotion to the First Division in his first season just as he had done at Ipswich.

After the Ipswich affair, Carroll was pleased that the then Republic of Ireland Manager, Mick Meagan, remained loyal and continued to select him for the national team. He was capped 17 times from 1968-1973 scoring once from the penalty spot in a 1-1 draw with Sweden in a European Qualifier played at Dalymount Park. 

Unfortunately for Tommy, Ireland only won two of the seventeen games he played in and they were friendly games. Alas, Irish fans may not remember much about his time in the green jersey because all but five games were played away from home.

He returned to Ireland to manage Shelbourne for part of the season 1975/76 following the departure of long serving Gerry Doyle. In December 1976 he was appointed player/manager of Athlone Town, succeeding Trevor Hockey.

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Having now conducted a number of home games whilst successfully adhering to all FAI and HSE protocols, the board of Shelbourne FC has decided to admit a limited number of season ticket holders to home games for the remainder of the season. 

Admission will be allocated using a random draw from a pool of applicants and attendees will adhere to social distancing guidelines.

Unfortunately we currently have more season ticket holders than we will have capacity to accommodate for the rest of the season.

Whilst this will leave some disappointed, we feel it is important to show our appreciation to the fans during this unprecedented time. 

Admission is non-transferable once granted but it can be cancelled with more than 24 hours notice provided.

However your name will then be re-entered into the draw system and there is no guarantee it will be drawn a second time.

Applicants can fill in this form here

The deadline for this Saturday’s Derry City game is 5pm on Thursday, August 13, and any applications received after this date will be entered into the draw for future fixtures.

  • Any applications received after this date will be entered into the draw for future fixtures
  • Any entries not selected for the Derry game will also be carried forward for the rest of the season
  • Each season ticket holder will only be able to attend one game before their name is then removed for future draws

We will also be writing to any season ticket holders who have not contacted us already on Monday, August 17, to inform them of the process.

We can not wait to start bringing our fans back home.

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Paul Corcoran at extratime.ie

Finn Harps slumped to a third loss in a row with Shelbourne taking the spoils at Finn Park as they nicked a 1-0 win on Tuesday evening.

A first half goal from Ryan Brennan was enough to seal the three points in tricky conditions for the Dublin side.

As well as the now customary kneeling by the players in support of Black Lives Matter prior to the game, a minutes silence was also held for former politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume who died this week. The minutes silence was also offered in memory of Harps supporters that have lost their lives to Covid-19.

Possibly testament to the poor conditions was the dismissal of Karl Sheppard after 11 minutes after the forward slid in dangerously on Kosovar Sadiki for a 50/50 challenge leaving Damien McGraith no choice but to give the Shels man his marching orders.

The Reds, to their credit, looked equal to Harps even with one less man on the field and they got well rewarded in the 29th minute with a goal from Ryan Brennan.

Aidan Friel started the move with a simple ball played to Alex O’Hanlon who cut in from the left and booted the ball high and long toward the back post where Brennan was able to meet and nod it into the bottom corner.

Alexander Kogler went close for the home side in the 39th minute when he took up the ball and managed to hold on to it with Shelbourne defenders quickly closing him down. The forward was under intense pressure as he got his shot off and his weak effort was easily saved by Colin McCabe.

A great defensive effort from Sam Todd just before half time kept Shelbourne from doubling their lead. A great pass across the Harps box was coming into the path of Aaron Dobbs for a simple shot on goal but the defender slid and just managed to nick the ball behind for a corner.

The second half somehow began worse than the first and it took over 10 minutes for even a semblance of a chance to be created by either side.

Some good play by Harps saw Mark Coyle spread the ball out to the left to Mark Russell, his cross was on its way to the head of Karl O’Sullivan who was perched in front of goal but the Shels defence just managed to shuffle across and deflect the ball behind.

O’Sullivan went close in the 69th minute after being played in towards goal with a deft pass as Ollie Horgan’s men started to take control of the game. The midfielder wound up the shot but McCabe had every bit of it and batted it away from goal.

Disaster was averted by Shelbourne deep in injury time when a wayward cross was almost turned into the goal by Daniel O’Reilly. The defender’s blushes were just about spared as the ball nicked over the crossbar.

Finn Harps: Shane McEleney , Mark Russell (Gareth Harkin 61) , Kosovar Sadiki , Sam Todd ; Ruairi Harkin , Leo Donnellan (Tony McNamee 45) , Mark Coyle (Jamie Browne 83) , Ryan Connolly , Karl O’Sullivan ; Alexander Kogler (Adrian Delap 46) .

Subs not used: Patrick McGarvey, Stephen Doherty, David Webster.

Booked: Leo Donnellan (33), Sam Todd (48), Shane McEleney (88).

Shelbourne: Colin McCabe ; Alex O’Hanlon , Aidan Friel , Luke Byrne , Daniel Byrne ; Sean Quinn , Ryan Brennan (George Poynton 72) ; Karl Sheppard , Dayle Rooney (Daniel O’Reilly 87) , Aaron Dobbs (Ciarán Kilduff 51) .

Subs not used: Jaze Kabia, Alex Cetiner, Oscar Brennan, Jack Brady.

Booked: Aaron Dobbs (16), Luke Byrne (43)

Sent off: Karl Sheppard (11)

Referee: Damien MacGraith

ExtraTime.ie Player of the Match: Alex O’Hanlon (Shelbourne)