Galway United 2 Shelbourne 5
Dayle Rooney was the hero for Shelbourne with a couple of goals to decide this FAI Cup tie at Eamonn Deacy Park.
Shels had too much firepower in the end and pulled away to ensure a losing start to John Caulfield’s reign.
But Galway should have hit the front after 19 minutes when Shels goalkeeper Colin McCabe took down Enda Curran.
But Mikey Place, who had put Curran through, blazed the penalty over the crossbar.
And they were made pay by a Shels side who settled and started to dictate play and they broke the deadlock 10 minutes from the break.
Rooney supplied a sublime finish to the bottom left corner of the net from a free directly in front of goal on the edge of the box, steering it around the six-man wall to score.
They almost added a second six minutes later but Mark Byrne's connection to a corner from the right by Rooney was deflected around the post by Killian Brouder.
Galway got back on level terms seven minutes after the restart when Curran drilled the ball low into the net from inside the box after a shot from Shane Doherty was deflected into his path after a corner.
But Shels hit the front after 71 minutes when a quick turnover saw Ciarán Kilduff through and he neatly chipped the advancing Matthew Connor to score.
However, the lead lasted less than two minutes as a surging run from Doherty saw the ball run loose for Place and he made amends for his penalty miss to poke the ball into the bottom left corner.
Shels didn't panic and got back in front 11 minutes from time when a shot from Kilduff came back off the crossbar but Ryan Brennan followed through to tap home his side's third goal.
And they wrapped up the issue seven minutes from time when Rooney slotted home superbly into the top corner and sub Aaron Dobbs added a late fifth goal.
GALWAY UNITED: Connor; Horgan, Farragher, Brouder, Parthoens (Ludden, 82); Place (Ubaezuon, 73 mins), Higgins (Barry, 46 mins), Nugent, Duggan, Doherty; Curran (Faherty, 66 mins).
SHELBOURNE: McCabe; Poynton (Friel, 83 mins), D Byrne, O'Reilly, O'Hanlon; Fernandes (Moore, 88 mins), M Byrne (Quinn, 55 mins), Deegan, Rooney; Brennan (Kabia, 83 mins), Kilduff (Dobbs, 88 mins).
Referee: D McGrath.
