The debate over whether Dubliners would be better off with Wimbledon playing their football out of Clondalkin may rage on, but pay a visit to Tolka Park for a Friday night top-of-the-table clash these days and you're already more or less guaranteed a display by some ould crazy gang or other.

Cork's visit a few weeks ago ended in mayhem when two of the visiting team and Dave Barry were sent off in the dying seconds, and last night produced a repeat of the chaos as Liam Coyle and Pat Fenlon were shown red cards amidst angry scenes in which just about every player played a part.

Coyle received his marching orders with a couple of minutes remaining for a clear-cut elbow on Fenlon, who had first pulled the striker back and then prevented him taking the free kick quickly. One or other of the Dubliner's offences was adjudged sufficient to warrant his second booking of the game.

"The game," said Shelbourne manager Damien Richardson afterwards, "is about passion but that passion has to be controlled and all three parties let themselves down out there tonight." Across the corridor Derry manager Felix Healy declined to say anything about what had transpired and instructed his players to remain silent too.

Fenlon hadn't been the only player to get his name into Aidan O'Regan's notebook during what had, virtually from the outset, been a particularly tough contest and more cards followed his dismissal as City piled frantically forward in search of an equaliser. Even the prolonged presence of Tony O'Dowd in the Shelbourne box wasn't enough to salvage a point, however, and in the end another Pat Scully goal proved good enough to keep Shelbourne on the leaders' tail and leave the champions 12 points adrift of the pace.

The first half, or rather the second quarter, had produced a handful of good scoring chances of which the visitors had the majority, with Paul Hegarty going close three times and hitting the post once. Scully's goal, however, his seventh of the season, came shortly after the restart when the visitors seemed to be still coming to terms with the new surroundings after the change of ends.

The team had been back out for only a matter of seconds when Eamonn Doherty had almost put Stephen Geoghegan in with a careless back pass and things had not improved much in the City defence when, after seven minutes, Mick Neville's lofted free from the left caught Peter Hutton and his goalkeeper, but not the Shelbourne centre half, in two minds about the best course of action at the far post.

Each of the visitors was due a share of the blame but less than a minute later Hutton compounded the error at the other end where, having been put clean through on Alan Gough by Liam Coyle, he shot hopelessly wide from 10 yards out.

Suddenly, City, who had looked the more likely to open the scoring through the first period, were looking to come from behind to salvage something, but the Dubliners have won every game they have led at Tolka this season and it never looked like being an easy trend to break.

Sean Hargan, on from early for the injured Robbie Brunton, did go close with a header at the right hand post just short of the hour but from that point on the locals began to grow in confidence, looking for the most part, the better placed to get the game's second goal.

Stephen Geoghegan, in fact, might have provided it, with 11 minutes remaining, but his follow up shot, after O'Dowd had blocked Dessie Baker's strike, was well wide of the mark.

Geoghegan having an off night! It was probably the one piece of good fortune which the visitors enjoyed, but with their hopes of retaining their title badly knocked off course, Coyle facing suspension and Robbie Brunton likely to be missing for a few weeks after a clash with Dave Campbell in the opening minutes, it will have done little for Healy's humour on the long journey home.

Shelbourne: Gough; Costello, Scully, McCarthy, Neville; Baker, Campbell, Fenlon, Rutherford; Sheridan; S Geoghegan. Sub: Smith for Baker (84 mins); Kelly for Geoghegan (92 mins).

Derry City: O'Dowd; Doherty, Curran, Dykes, Brunton; Mohan, Hutton, Hegarty, Keddy; L Coyle, Beckett. Subs: Hargan for Brunton (five mins); Gallagher for Hargan (77 mins).

Referee: A O'Regan (Cork).

The Shelbourne board will meet on Tuesday to consider what action to take in relation to comments made in support of Wimbledon's proposed move to Ireland by manager Damien Richardson to a Dublin newspaper earlier in week. The club issued a statement at last night's game dissociating itself from their manager's sentiments.