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'13 points, woo hoo' - Damien Duff keeping feet on ground despite Shelbourne's strong start

Shelbourne are the early leaders of the League of Ireland Premier Division but manager Damien Duff is refusing to get carried away.

A 2-0 win over local rivals Bohemians at Dalymount Park on Friday night was their fourth of the season, keeping them at the summit after five games.

But speaking to RTÉ Sport's Tony O'Donoghue afterwards, Duff said: "A great win. I don't think we had won here in 12 or 13 years. It’s big but we move on.

"As pleasing as it was I’m glad the lads aren’t overly excited. We’ve ticked off three points, it’s our job and we move on to next week. Maybe a year or two ago we would have got really excited by it.

"You don’t get extra points for beating Rovers at home or Bohs away. Magnificent but we’re good at forgetting these results.

"I'm not looking too far ahead. It’s a nice win. I never got carried away with anything positive or negative in my life.

"We’re top of the league. 13 points. Woo-hoo."

Sean Boyd was not deemed fit to start after a three-game but came on to win the penalty that allowed Will Jarvis to break the deadlock on 80 minutes, before Gavin Molloy's header made sure of the points for Shels.

"He’s a presence," said Duff of Boyd. "For as good as he was for 30 minutes I thought John Martin was outstanding as well.

"Gavin Molloy is absolutely elite in this league. Can’t speak highly of him enough, an absolute class act."

Bohemians manager Declan Devine admitted his side were "not good enough" as they slumped to a second defeat in five days following Monday's loss in Drogheda.

"There was very little in the game but Dublin derbies are about winning and we didn’t see it through," he said.

"Really disappointed. We made subs just before the penalty to try and go win the game and I think we caused our own problems again to be honest.

"In the penalty we didn’t know what was over our shoulder and then we lost a man or have been outjumped from the set-piece.


"It’s all about results. The two defeats this week have been really hard to take. A better performance but not good enough to win it. When you’re not good enough to win it you have to make sure you don’t lose it and we didn’t do that tonight.

"The fans are entitled to be angry, I’m angry myself.

"We didn’t do enough to win the game and we have to understand that. I didn’t think they did a lot to win it but it is what it is. We have to take it on the chin."

Devine again employed captain Jordan Flores in the heart of his defence as new defensive signings Jevon Mills, Aboubacar Keita and Divin Isamala bed in.

"He’s a class act," said the manager of Flores. "Ideally you would be playing him in midfield but we haven’t got that luxury at the minute.

"We have brought a couple of defenders in that have to get up to speed. I feel when they do they’ll be a huge addition to the club."

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