Shelbourne seems redemption against Sligo

Shelbourne play Sligo Rovers in the FAI Cup Final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin this Sunday

This Sunday, November 6, will see Shelbourne play Sligo Rovers in the FAI Cup Final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. It will be Sligo’s third final in as many years, and they will play a Shelbourne side which has plied their trade a division lower than Sligo for the past five years, but one which will join them in the Premier Division in 2012 having wrapped up promotion from the League of Ireland First Division last week.

The final marks a fitting bookend to what many at Shelbourne will surely hope is now a closed chapter in their history, their five-year stint in the wilderness of the lower reaches of the League of Ireland.
Following Shelbourne’s 13th national league title win in 2006, the club was consumed by a financial catastrophe which very nearly brought an end to over a century of Shelbourne history.

The club had spent lavishly to acquire, and keep, the best talent in Irish domestic soccer, drawing down on funds acquired for the sale of their home stadium, Tolka Park.
However, with the ultimate aim of this lavish spending being qualification for the group stages of

European competition, the club stretched itself far beyond its financial capabilities. As the European dream failed to materialize (despite coming very close on occasion) the club found itself racked with debt, unable to pay players and facing winding up orders from the revenue commissioner.

By the start of the 2007 season Shelbourne had lost all but two of their playing staff, the entire management team had departed and those who remained at the club faced a struggle to field a side for their new life in the League of Ireland First Division.

Thanks to a monumental effort from new manager Dermot Keely and a band of volunteers, the club was able to steady the ship and attain a mid-table finish to their first season in the league.

That the First Division is known by many in League of Ireland circles as the “graveyard” due its ability to cause near fatal financial trouble for clubs plying their trade in the division, it shows just how far Shelbourne had fallen since their coronation as Premier Division champions a few months back.

A last minute goal in the final game of the 2008 season by Limerick’s Colin Scanlon denied Shels’s promotion, and near misses in the 2009 and 2010 seasons kept the club treading water in the lower division.

With the long-term future of Shelbourne hanging more precariously with each extra year spent away from the relative riches of Premier Division soccer the club was never far from danger as crowds dwindled and hope of a return to the big time faded.

However, with the arrival of Alan Matthews and a host of new signings in 2011 Shels were able to lead the way in a highly competitive division and finally attained their goal of promotion to the League of Ireland Premier Division last Tuesday night, with a 4-0 victory over Finn Harps at Tolka Park.

For those at the club who have endured five years of worries over the future sustainability of their club, this will be seen as a moment of overdue redemption and a return to their rightful place at the top table of Irish soccer.

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Nster.com