HEARY RULES OUT PROMOTION CHALLENGE DESPITE WIN

Shelbourne boss Owen Heary was delighted with the way his team played in the second-half as they beat UCD 2-1 at Belfield on Friday night. 

Speaking to SSE Airtricity League reporter Peter Branigan, Heary explained that he had fears that history might repeat itself against The Students.

"I thought it was going to be another one of those games."

"We played them off the park at Tolka earlier on in the season and got nothing."

"Second-half, we asked them for a bit more intensity, to press higher, and for them to work harder, and they did that."

And the Shels boss explained why it was so important to get something for their efforts on Friday night.

"Before the break in the season, we played UCD and Cobh, we played very well in those two games."

"But we came away with nothing."

"The heads started dropping."

"The result against Longford, where we played with nine men, and kept a clean sheet, it turned the momentum around for us. And tonight's result continues that turnaround."

Heary reserved particular praise for his less experienced players.

"The younger players were very good tonight."

"Dylan Grimes was excellent."

"Michael Murphy is still doing his leaving-cert, and he was different class tonight."

"James English is your old style centre-forward. He'll work his socks off."

"We brought (former Shelbourne player) Stephen Geoghegan in to work with him during the week, and it paid dividends straight away."

And Heary says they have goals for the rest of the season

"It's going to be very hard to catch Waterford."

"We're still in the Leinster Senior Cup, and the FAI Cup, and we want to finish higher in the League than last year."

"If we can do that, and keep the majority of this team together, then I think we'll have a right chance of going for promotion next season."

This article was originally published on the Official League of Ireland website.