Massive brawl breaks out between Shelbourne and Bohemians players ahead of derby
A brawl broke out between rival staff and players ahead of a Dublin derby between Shelbourne and Bohemians on Monday night.Members of both sides got involved in a shoving match as the warm-ups concluded.The melee kicked off as Bohs players, warming up down the Drumcondra end, headed into the half that Shels were occupying, to salute their supporters.There were differing accounts of how the clash started, but it appeared that members of the Reds contingent took umbrage at their League of Ireland rivals encroaching on their warm-up space.It appeared that some players from both sides were attempting to diffuse the situation, but the tension was palpable as the game kicked-off, with tackles flying in from both sides.Bohs are top of the table, three points ahead of St Patrick’s Athletic heading into Monday night’s game.Shels are fourth in the Premier Division, seven points adrift of their visitors.Bohemians boss Alan Reynolds said ahead of kick-off: Reynolds said: “We know how big a threat Shelbourne pose.“We had some really big battles last season and they have players of real quality who can hurt you if our concentration levels aren’t what they need to be.“We saw it when we played them in our last game against them in Dalymount last season. We played some brilliant stuff in that game, really good stuff.“We were 2-0 up after 20 minutes or so, and still 2-1 up with only three minutes to go and they came back to hit us twice in the last few minutes to win the game.“When we played them in Tolka last summer, again we had a good second half and were 2-1 up going into injury-time only to be pegged back to 2-2. So we are well aware of how good Shelbourne are and the threats they pose.“They have strengthened further since last season too, and have an excellent manager in Joey O’Brien as we saw from the way their form picked up when he took charge last year.“But we are coming into this game in really good form. We’ve won our last five games in a row, which is a great run for any team.“They’ve been different types of wins in that run too. We’ve had to work hard for each of them, and we’ve had to find different ways of winning and managing tricky games too. We’re not patting ourselves on the back, we really want to keep that run going.“But that form and being able to celebrate with fans has given the lads great confidence coming into this game.“It’s a sold-out Dublin derby, the atmosphere will be electric, and there is pressure on both teams to deliver for their fans, so we have to focus on doing our own job right and making sure we start with tempo and maintain our concentration levels for the full game.”Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply click here.Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond.
