Glentoran 0 Shelbourne 3: Two Jason Byrne goals either side of Ollie Cahill's exquisite effort at the Oval last night rewarded Shelbourne with a winner-takes-all meeting with Derry City at Tolka Park next week.
Little over a week ago, Glentoran stunned Derry to keep alive hopes of a place in the semi-finals of the Setanta Cup. But this was their first home defeat since new manager Paul Millar took charge six weeks ago and it leaves Shelbourne, Derry City and Linfield to battle for the two semi-final places next week.
Jason Byrne scored his first goals of the 2006 competition - the first with a touch of fortune, the second a predator's finish that added to Cahill's sublime longrange lob half an hour into this one-sided affair.
It came as no surprise when after just 16 minutes Glentoran's Elliot Morris was picking the ball out of his net. The goalkeeper could do nothing to prevent Byrne's long-range deflected freekick from going beyond his clutches.
And, on the half-hour mark, Cahill helped himself and Shelbourne to a second - a perfectly measured lob from 30 yards that must have reminded Morris of the goal Glen Crowe scored against him at Tolka Park earlier this season.
Sean Holmes rattled the Shelbourne crossbar with a 63rd-minute free-kick, but that was the closest the home side came to scoring.
Byrne scored his fourth goal of the new season in the 69th minute. He remained in the goalmouth when Joseph Ndo's corner was cleared as far as Cahill. He picked out the unmarked Byrne who blasted the ball past Morris.
GLENTORAN: Morris; Ward (Berry, 84), Nixon, Simpson, Holmes, McCann (Halliday, halftime), Melaugh, McDonagh, Lockhart, Morgan (Reed, 70), Browne.
SHELBOURNE: Williams (Delaney, 90), Dillon, Harris, Rogers, Crawley, Ryan (Baker, 80), Cahill, S Byrne, Crowe, J Byrne (O'Neill, 78), J Ndo.
Referee: A McCourt (Bangor).