Jarvis to the fore as Shelbourne edge out cagey affair on European return

Shelbourne's first foray into Europe since 2006 ended with a laborious victory over St Joseph's of Gibraltar in their UEFA Conference League first qualifying round first leg at Tolka Park.

A goal and assist from the classy Will Jarvis helped Shels to their first European win since beating Odense in the second leg of an Intertoto Cup tie, but despite dominating possession they created very few clear cut chances and weren’t without a scare from their visitors.

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Shels may have had to wait 18 years for their next European odyssey, with more dark days than good during that time, but they only had to wait 27 seconds longer to celebrate a goal.

Jarvis skipped around three defenders and laid off Mark Coyle outside the box and the club captain launched a daisy cutter into the bottom left corner to send Tolka into delirium.

After the early fireworks, the game turned into a textbook cagey European affair with Joseph’s content to sit back and frustrate the Reds.

Shels nearly let their concentration slip on the half hour when Paddy Barrett made a hash of intercepting a through ball and Liam Walker, Gibraltar's record caps and goalscorer, drilled a strike past Conor Kearns' post.

That fright did little to scare Shels back into life and Tolka Park was soon hit with a stomach upset as Francisco Paul Curado’s belly bizarrely levelled proceedings five minutes before the break.

Walker’s floated corner came through a barrage of bodies before bouncing off Curado and past Kearns.

Sean Boyd was introduced from the bench at the interval and he combined with John Martin to win the hosts a penalty in the 58th minute.

Martin headed to Boyd who laid off his strike partner only for Martin to be bundled to the ground by a combination of