Shelbourne v Finn Harps – eircom League of Ireland First Division – Tolka Park, Saturday 19th May – kick-off 8.00pm

Preview by Joe Doherty

Finn Harps put a four game unbeaten record on the line when they make their first journey of the season to the capital to take on Shelbourne on Saturday evening.  Harps have won two and drawn two of their previous four games and have hit a bit of form in recent weeks after a poor opening to the season.  They have scored ten goals in the last four games and have kept clean sheets in each of their previous two league games against Kilkenny City and Dundalk.

Harps Manager Paul Hegarty will recall Shaun McGowan to the starting line-up for the trip to Tolka Park on Saturday night in place of the suspended Tony Shields.  Shields will watch from the stands after picking up four bookings this season and serves a one-game ban.  Mickey Funston continues to miss out through suspension but other than Funston and Shields, Hegarty has a full squad to choose from.

Gordon Simms is again likely to watch again from the bench with the back four of Sean Roddy, Eloka Asokuh, Declan Boyle and Shaun Holmes set to start.  The right-side of midfield has proved to be a problem area so far this season for Hegarty with four players already occupying this slot in the opening twelve games of the season.  Conor Gethins was the latest player to feature in that role last weekend in the scoreless Finn Park draw with league leaders Dundalk.  John O'Loughlin will partner McGowan in the centre of midfield with Jonathan Minnock starting on the left.  Chris Breen will fill one of the berths up-front with Stephen Parkhouse the favourite to partner the Stranorlar man.

The Harps Manager was full of praise for his team after the scoreless draw with Dundalk.  “I have the utmost respect for the attitude of the players and the shift that they put in.  In saying that, we have only one point to show from it and that is very unsatisfactory.  Some of the approach play was excellent, but maybe the final ball could have opened them up a wee bit more.  That's probably nit-picking though because I can't fault the players,” he noted.

Hegarty said that his side will continue to approach games as they have done in recent weeks.  “As I said before, there is only one way we can play and that is to go out an try to win matches.  We can't sit back, soak up pressure and hope to hit teams on the break,” commented the Harps boss.  “We just want to go and play and I felt we did that last week against Dundalk and we'll go to Shelbourne and do the same.”

Shelbourne have lost just once at Tolka Park in their five games at the Dublin venue this season, that defeat coming in a 2-0 reversal against league leaders Dundalk at the end of March.  On the other hand, only Athlone have managed to leave Tolka Park defeated this season as draws have been the order of the day.  Dermot Keely's side haven't won in their last five outings – drawing four and losing once.

Harps' last victory over Shels at Tolka Park was at the start of the 2000-01 season when Alexander Nesovic scored the only goal of the game.  Harps ended that season getting relegated from the Premier Division while Dermot Keely, in his first spell as Manager at Tolka Park, missed out on the Premier Division title on the last day of the season to Bohemians.

When the two sides met earlier in the season, Harps emerged victorious by the odd goal in three at Finn Park.  Harps took a first half lead through centre-back Gordon Simms only for former Harps player Davitt Walsh to equaliser for Shels.  Conor Gethins grabbed a last minute winner for Paul Hegarty's side.

Last Six Meetings:

24 th July 2004 (FAI Cup) Shelbourne 4 Finn Harps 1

6 th May 2005 (Premier Division) Shelbourne 3 Finn Harps 0

23 rd September 2005 (Premier Division) Finn Harps 0 Shelbourne 3

28 th October 2005 (Premier Division) Shelbourne 1 Finn Harps 0

5 th July 2006 (League Cup) Shelbourne 4 Finn Harps 1

16 th March 2007 (First Division) Finn Harps 2 Shelbourne 1

Form guide (last six league games):

Finn Harps: D-W-D-L-L-D (6pts).  Shelbourne: D-D-D-L-D-W (7pts).

Saturday's game at Tolka Park kicks-off at 8.00pm.