Conference League: Shelbourne 0 Crystal Palace 3 (Uche 11, Nketiah 25, Pino 37)
Shelbourne’s run in Europe up to this point was laced with a mix of hard luck stories and moments where they had simply shot themselves in the foot. But there were no grey areas here as Crystal Palace followed the script and swatted them aside with ease.
Sitting fourth in the English Premier League and with 10 internationals in their starting team, Palace have designs on winning the Conference League outright – a competition they didn’t want to be in the first place, having been demoted from the Europa League because of Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules.
The travelling fans slaughtered European football’s governing body with a volley of barbed chants to that effect, but they are in it to win it now.
On the other hand, Shelbourne’s remote hopes of reaching the playoffs were predictably snuffed out in a daunting encounter they needed to win to stand any chance of progressing, ahead of their trip to Celje next week.
That final game in Slovenia is now a dead rubber but Joey O’Brien’s men will at least try to close out the campaign with a goal to their name, having now gone five European games without scoring in this league phase. That never looked like changing here, with Daniel Kelly’s injury-time effort the closest they came to ticking the box.
Shelbourne had only conceded four times in their four games before this, and Palace manager Oliver Glasner spoke glowingly in the build-up about their defensive structure and organisation. But few believed his team would find this an overly taxing affair and it was a bridge too far in that respect, as Palace inflicted all of the damage in a one-sided, first-half show of strength.
Christantus Uche, Eddie Nketiah and Yeremy Pino scored the goals with a lethal combination of pace, power and finesse that left Shelbourne reeling and quickly stripped of confidence under a wave of devastating, quick-fire attacks as former Reds manager Damien Duff looked on from the stands.
Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton and Shelbourne’s Harry Wood. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Shelbourne enjoyed their best spell in the opening minutes, eager to make an impression against a Palace side starting seven of the team that beat Fulham in the Premier League last Sunday. They cobbled together a fistful of well constructed moves in Palace territory but ultimately lacked a cutting edge and their have-a-go approach was short-lived.
Palace scored early, and often. Uche, one of the few fringe players in the side, showed just why the Londoners were keen to sign him on loan from Getafe at the start of the season with an 11th minute opener.
Marc Guehi, the England international left smarting during the summer after a proposed move to Liverpool fell through, set the wheels in motion with a sweet ball to Daichi Kamada who in turn found Nketiah down the left. He squared for Uche who accepted the invitation with a first-time finish.
And it got ugly for Shelbourne thereafter. Palace attacked at will and their speed of thought took its toll on O’Brien’s men who looked mentally fatigued by the rat-a-tat nature of that relentless assault.
Shelbourne survived a VAR check for a potential penalty when Milan Mbeng launched himself at Nketiah in the box. It was well-timed, but so too was Nketiah’s arrival in the box moments later to tap home Palace’s second after 25 minutes.
Spanish international Pino latched on to a stray Shelbourne ball in midfield and set Uche free. His stabbed effort, while under pressure from outrushing goalkeeper Wessel Speel, hit the post but Nketiah was on hand to finish at close range.
Shelbourne were unravelling and their persistent struggles in trying to track runners, like Nketiah in that instance, was telling long before Chris Richards headed off the crossbar, and before Pino added the third eight minutes before half-time.
He picked the ball up just outside the centre circle and sauntered past Kameron Ledwidge’s sleepy challenge before evading more jaded challenges on the edge of the box to beat Speel with a fine finish right in front of the 1,800 Palace fans.
With nothing to lose, Shelbourne certainly put up more of a fight after the break but continued to flirt with danger and Speel denied Nketiah a second of the night, saving with his legs at close range while goalkeeper Walter Benitez comfortably dealt with a Jack Henry-Francis effort at the other end.
Palace ought to have closed out the game with even more goals but substitute Romain Esse’s shot cannoned off one post and then the other, before Speel scooped the ball off the line. Uche then squandered a glorious chance to finish the game with a brace, blazing over from eight yards after finding space in the box.
But the damage was well and truly done by then on a predictably tough night for Shelbourne who close out the campaign next week against a Celje team that had Shamrock Rovers’ measure here at Tallaght Stadium back in October.
SHELBOURNE: Speel; Mbeng (Temple 81), Coyle (Gannon 75), Barrett, Ledwidge (Wilson 59); Henry-Francis, McInroy, Caffrey; Wood (Chapman 81), Boyd, Martin (Kelly 59).
CRYSTAL PALACE: Benitez; Richards, Lacroix, Guehi; Devenny (Casey 82), Wharton (Lerma 45), Kamada (Hughes 45), Sosa; Pino (Esse 45), Uche, Niketiah (Clyne 67).
Referee: M Matosa (Slovenia)