Finn Harps have suffered their first defeat of the season after eventually going down 2-0 to table-toppers Shelbourne at Tolka Park tonight.
In a fairly nip and tuck opening period, it was Shels who opened the scoring on the 23rd minute and in some impressive style.
Gareth Coughlan was fouled on the edge of the Harps area and he duly unleashed a superb free-kick into the top left corner of Winn’s net to make it 1-0.
Harps tried to regroup after going behind but Shels continued to pass the ball well throughout and kept Harps’ chances to a minimum.
Without the young and not-so-young guns of Ruairi Keating and Kevin McHugh, Harps were struggling in the firing line.
But just before the half-time whistle Mickey Funston had the perfect opportunity to reply from the penalty spot.
But the Harps midfielder fluffed his lines as Greg Murray saved with his foot after Lee Desmond had taken down Damien McNulty in the box.
After the restart Harps had a succession of corners which unfortunately didn’t results in anything.
Coughlan almost doubled his tally for Shels in the 72nd minute when his powerful shot came back off the bar.
Harps cause wasn’t help by the sending off of Josh Mailey as the Dublin outfit ran down the clock.
And when referee Andrew Mullally pointed to the penalty spot at the death, Keith Quinn sealed the points on a night when Harps got a wake-up call after such a promising start to the season.
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