Mervue United -v- Shelbourne

• Terry Flaherty
• Fri, Mar 25 2011


Unbeaten Shelbourne travel west to Galway City on Friday night to face Mervue United, as they become only the second visitors to Fahy’s Field in the Airtricity First Division. Kick-off is at 7.45 p.m.

Shelbourne manager Alan Matthews has seen his side start the new campaign with two good wins against Longford Town (away) and Wexford Youths (home) and will be hoping to add a third successive three points. Mervue could have gone into this game as leaders of the First Division but the concession of two late goals against Longford at Flancare Park last Saturday night saw them leave the midlands venue empty handed.

Mathews declared himself “very happy with last week’s 4-2 win, but there are things we need to work on and are working on. We just need to keep applying ourselves as well as we can week in, week out and keep working hard. There were a lot of positives from certain aspects of our performance against Wexford, but also a lot to think about.”

Mervue manager Johnny Glynn was disappointed with his side’s result in Longford on Saturday night but was encouraged by the team’s performance commenting “Whilst we were disappointed to have not taken any points from the game, I was pleased with the manner in which we played for most of the game and that we are still improving as a team.”

Glynn welcomes back Rory Gaffney and Tom King after their one game suspensions last week, while David O’Brien also returns to the squad having also missed the trip to Longford through injury. Captain Damien O’Rourke could also be in line for a place on the bench having trained this week, but Dan Cunningham (cartilage), John Mountney (knee) and Eoin Martin (hand) all definitely miss out.

Matthews will have a full squad to choose from apart from Sean Byrne who has returned to training following a hamstring injury but is unlikely to feature for another week or two. Ray Scully returns to the squad after serving his suspension carried over from last season.

Shelbourne will arrive at Fahy’s Field having never drop a point in six meetings with their hosts and will be quietly confident of securing another three points but they will be taking nothing for granted against a much improved Mervue side.

Referee: John McLoughlin
Paddy Power odds: Mervue Utd 8/1; Draw 7/2; Shelbourne 3/10.
Extratime prediction: The stats strongly point to an away win – 2-1 to Shelbourne