For Bray it's all about drawing some consolation from what has been a terrible few weeks, but for Finn Harps tomorrow's Harp Lager FAI Cup final at Tolka Park (4.15, live on Network 2) provides not only the opportunity for the club to win its first major trophy in a quarter of a century, but also to confirm that they, rather than their old rivals Derry City and Sligo Rovers, are now the force to be reckoned with in the North West.

Harps have come a long way in three seasons, manager Charlie McGeever having had just four players on the books when he took over three seasons ago. But now, McGeever believes, a cup win would provide further evidence that Harps have passed City and Rovers, which in turn will strengthen his hand as he looks to step up another gear next season and mount a sustained challenge for the championship title.

"I think the cup is enormously important to the supporters of this club in its own right," says McGeever. "It's probably because it's the only thing we've ever won really, but we always feel that from around the time that the cup starts we get a more vocal supporter, there's more of a buzz around the place for games.

"For the fans and the club winning this game would be great, but it would also help us when we go out looking to sign players. In the past we've tended to be sandwiched between two big neighbours, but I'd hope that we can show that we're the sort of club that can win things this weekend and that that, in turn, along with the promise of European football, will enable us to persuade the very best players to come here when we look to improve the squad over the close season."

McGeever has everybody bar French full back Pascal Vaudequin, who was badly injured in the semi-final, available for tomorrow's game and while he feels that the loss of the former Derry City and Shelbourne defender is a serious blow, with Trevor Scanlon coming in he still looks, on paper at least, to have comfortably the stronger side.

In just about every area of the Harps team there is more experience and, they would feel, more quality. Brian McKenna has been performed solidly all season, the central defensive unit of Gavin Dykes and Declan Boyle is amongst the strongest in the country, Tom Mohan and Fergal Harkin in mid-field, as well as James Mulligan and Jonathon Speak up front, have all won widespread praise for their form this season.

Pat Devlin, not surprisingly, disagrees. Most neutrals, he argues, who saw his team play over the course of the season would have felt they were too good to go down - although it may largely come down to which games were witnessed.

While the Harps strike force went through their dry spells and, for much of the season, not nearly enough goals were produced from elsewhere in the team, Bray's inability to score on a regular basis from any position after their initial purple patch was the main cause of their downfall in the league, and it is a problem which will continue to be at the centre of Devlin's thinking as he sits down to select his team for the final.

Against St Patrick's last week, for a game which his side had to win if they were to have any chance of staying up, the Wanderers boss opted to leave Kieran O'Brien on the bench and play Stephen Fox, a mid-fielder, as the sole striker in a 45-1 formation.

Wanderers created the better of the game's chances in the early stages, but ultimately they failed once again to find the net which suggests that Devlin will play safe this time and stick O'Brien back in from the start, possibly with Fox remaining alongside him in a forward role.

Jason Byrne, who has missed the second half of the season because of a broken leg sustained in an ill-tempered league game at the Showgrounds, could come back in but, with just a friendly under his belt since he resumed training, chucking the teenager in from the start would be a bold gamble and the bench would appear the most likely location for Robbie Keane's young cousin come kick-off. Devlin's main worry is the fitness of Jody Lynch, Maurice Farrell and Alan Smith, but he expects them to be fit to take their places.

At the back Devlin, who has employed just about every system known to mankind at some point over the course of the season, looks to have stronger options and while Colm Tresson may be used as a striker, the flat back four employed against the league champions looked solid enough against a Harps side with better attacking credentials. Wanderers might well feel that containing their opponents until the closing stages and then scoring on the break represents their best route to a repeat of their 1990 success.