Shelbourne 2 Shamrock Rovers 1:THOSE ROVERS fans who travelled across the city for this cup game in the hope of witnessing that most precious of football commodities, "a reaction", must have left for home more downhearted than ever last night.

A Philly Hughes goal in each half was enough to ensure the club’s 26th attempt to win this competition for the 25th time ended in failure, and there wasn’t the slightest hint of injustice about any of it.

Stephen Glass, one suspects, will have to get much more out of his players in next Saturday’s League Cup final if he is to have any chance of heading off the search for a successor.

He will have to do it without his skipper Ken Oman, however, who was sent off here late in the first half and so is on course to be sidelined.

There are, inevitably, so many “ifs” and “buts” in these situations that it is impossible to really say whether a board sacking a manager before a game like this – in the hope of salvaging something from a given situation – was right to take that chance.

Certainly, there was precious little evidence of any sort of lift here, but there was plenty more to fuel the argument that, as a group, these players have simply let themselves down.

That said, the case for having kept Stephen Kenny and allowed him to put together a squad of his own would be a little more compelling if Rovers had not looked so vulnerable for much of the evening here on both sides of their defence – positions which were filled by the Dubliner after he took charge, rather than the club’s board beforehand.

On the face of it, the league champions still had reason to arrive at Tolka with some confidence.

Their problems have been well documented but these things are relative and – as a glance at the table shows – they enjoy a 13-point advantage over their hosts, having won two of the sides’ three league meetings and drawn the other while scoring nine times in the process.

There were, however, few signs over the course of this contest of the sort of superiority those numbers would suggest.

Rovers actually started solidly enough, having just about the better of the early exchanges and notching up a couple of half chances – about the best of which fell to Ciaran Kilduff, who fired well wide on the turn, and Pat Sullivan, whose first-time low shot into a densely packed area was deflected the wrong side of the right-hand post.

What they then hopelessly failed to do was turn that early pressure into something more sustained, with a tendency towards ponderous passing and consistently poor penetration in the final third translating into a generally quiet night for Chris Bennion.

The Shelbourne goalkeeper was called into serious action once before the deadlock was broken and he reacted brilliantly to push a close-range Tommy Stewart header around the post.

Otherwise the game was played out well in front of him, with the home side holding their own and then having the better of it midfield where David Cassidy was terrific and Glenn Cronin was a major influence – at least until the end of half time when he went off injured.

By then, the hosts led thanks to Hughes’s first, a coolly finished effort from just inside the area set up for him by Cassidy, who had been quick to capitalise on a mistake by Shane O’Connor before timing his pass inside to perfection.

Glass replaced Stephen Rice, who was already on a booking, with Conor McCormack at the break, while Sean Gannon also arrived on as part of a reshuffle intended to steady Rovers at the back while providing the sort of platform on which they might somehow get themselves back into the game – but it didn’t have the necessary impact.

Rovers chased all right but Shelbourne always looked that little bit more hungry to see the thing through, and having come close once or twice to exposing the gaps their opponents were being forced to leave at the back, they grabbed their second in the 71st minute when Cassidy’s inch-perfect cross from the right was headed home at the far post by Hughes.

The striker received a huge ovation as he departed a couple of minutes from time and though Rovers pulled an unlikely one back when Sean Gannon’s injury time cross flew straight in thanks to a mix-up between Stephen Paisley and his goalkeeper, the locals’ celebrations kept going well beyond the final whistle.

SHELBOURNE: Bennion; Ryan, Boyle, Paisley, S Byrne; Cassidy, Dawson, Cronin (Hurley ( 44 mins), Kavanagh; Hughes (Murphy, 87 mins), Gorman (P Byrne, 55 mins).

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Jansson; Gilbert, Oman, Sullivan, O’Connor; Finn, Rice (Gannon, half-time); Stewart (Kavanagh, 74 mins), Brennan, McCabe (McCormack, half-time); Kilduff.

Referee: A Kelly (Cork).