Preview: Shelbourne vs Waterford United

Shelbourne welcome the visitors Waterford United to Tolka Park for the first time since the summer of 2006 for their upcoming Eircom League First Division clash. Both sides are already playing catch-up to Dundalk at the top and know that a loss could open up a sizeable gap this early into the campaign.

Dermot Keely boasts a fully fit side for this tie, however three regular starters are suspended: Greg O’Halloran (3rd game of a three game suspension having been sent off away to Monaghan United on March 21st), Alan Byrne (2nd game of a two game suspension – sent off at home to Athlone Town – March 28th) and Alan Murphy (Automatic suspension, having been sent off away to Sporting Fingal last week)

So it will be a rejigged defence that will line-up at Tolka Park as the impressive partnership of Alan Byrne and Damien Brennan is broken up. David McGill and Mark O’Brien look set to keep their centre midfield partnership and both Mark Rutherford and James Keddy have enjoyed decent performances on the left wing however after the latter’s introduction at half time last week coincided with the first real spell of pressure for Shels’, he is likely to get the nod in midfield.

Waterford have no injury worries and no suspensions so Gareth Cronin has a full squad to pick from. Hopefully Waterford will bring some excitement to the game, as Shels’ last two matches have been particularly dour. After Waterford’s first defeat at Dundalk the previous week, the team bounced back in dramatic fashion against Kildare last Friday night, coming from behind twice and notching an injury-time winner, we could see some entertaining football which has been lacking from Tolka Park for a while. Cronin was critical of his side’s performance last week however as some of his players were only back from injury, so they should be in far better shape tomorrow night.

Dundalk are away to Athlone town on Saturday so a victory for the visitors could, for twenty four hours at least, put them at the top of the table and five points clear of the hosts. Again the threat of Shels’ Anto Flood will be paramount in deciding this fixture as he remains the most impressive player of either side this season. Despite missing a great chance in the closing stages to win the game last week, Flood remains top scorer in the league and his goals to games ratio is particularly fine this term with six goals in seven starts.

An extra dimension is added to the game by the fact that no less than five of the Shelbourne squad have worn the blue shirt within the past season and a half, namely James Chambers, Alan Keely, Dean Delaney, Robbie Hedderman and Alan Mulcahy.