After last Sunday's tight but tedious first encounter, both managers are predicting better stuff at Tolka Park this afternoon (kick-off 5.15) when Bray Wanderers and Finn Harps have a second crack at deciding this season's Harp Lager FAI Cup final.

Having had the better of the first game in which they tactically outwitted their opponents, Wanderers have plenty of confidence that they can upset Charlie McGeever's side at the second attempt.

On Sunday their attempt to frustrate Harps and then grab a winner, probably from a set piece, worked well, but whether they can pull it off a second time remains to be seen.

Pat Devlin, like his opposite number, was quiet this week on his intentions for the replay. John Ryan is out due to a groin injury picked up on Sunday, so there will be at least one change, although Devlin is not saying if Jason Byrne, Barry O'Connor or Kieran "Tarzan" O'Brien will come in, and he is likewise not forthcoming on the tactical approach his team will take.

The 3-4-3 formation employed last week, which ended up looking more like 3-6-1 for most of the game, certainly prevented Harps from getting going in midfield and, if Byrne's ability to play from the start after such a long lay-off is still in doubt, then that may well be what the Wanderers boss opts to stick with for the first hour or so.

Last time out, however, Stephen Fox looked like a player who could create a great deal for a striking partner if only he had one, and if Devlin's confidence extends beyond a belief in his side's ability to nick a goal and hang on, then one of the three strikers looks likely to come in from the start - even if initially getting forward from a deeper midfield role.

"We haven't decided what we're going to do yet," said Devlin yesterday, "but I'll tell you this: the gap between the two teams isn't as wide as people are making out. A lot of people thought that we played well to hold them last week, but we didn't, we didn't play well at all and this time I think we'll play an awful lot better."

Devlin's hopes are further boosted by the return of Aaron Lynch to the squad for the first time since he sustained a broken leg in Sligo. The 27-year-old has, says his manager, done remarkably well in training this week.

On the down side, Richie Parsons and Robbie Coyle have been transfer listed by the club and are unlikely to feature in today's squad.

Like Devlin, McGeever reckons his side fell badly short of their best last Sunday with five or six players, he estimates, failing to perform. "No team can carry that many players and the simple fact is that we have gotten a second bite of the cherry and now we have to improve if we want to take advantage of it."

"I think we can too, the build-up this time has been better for the players, they're more relaxed because, as somebody put it up here, this one's not an occasion, it is just a football game and I think this time we'll see a bit more of what the two teams are capable of."

McGeever says there will be changes, but declined to say whether they will be to the line-up or simply in terms of the tactics. Certainly the Harps midfield will have to do something differently as last weekend they failed to assert themselves until the last 10 minutes or so when, once or twice, they got men into the sort of wide positions from which they could trouble the Bray defence.

Unlike Devlin, McGeever has employed the same 4-4-2 formation all season and it's difficult to see him changing it now. The Harps boss admits too that when everybody is fit his best side is reasonably obvious and last week's 11, with the exception of Pascal Vaudequin who was, and still is, injured, was his best.

"We'll decide after we get to Dublin what we'll do, but we will look to change a few things, I think we have to," insists McGeever who goes on to predict that, whatever Bray set out to do this afternoon, the second game will be a better spectacle than the first.

"I think it'll be a looser game and that should mean that there are more chances and that it's more entertaining," he says, "but, to be honest, that's not my main concern. The fact is that cup finals aren't about entertaining people, they're about winning the thing and if we win this game then not too many people up this way will be worrying about the way we did it."

He still believes, however, that a more open contest will be of benefit to his team, so much so that, when it comes down to predicting the outcome, he reckons that "if it's a good game I think we'll win, but if it's not then I'd have to say that Bray would have the better chance."

The manager of St Patricks Athletic, Liam Buckley, and three of his championship winning side are included in the six-man shortlist for the Opel/Soccer Writers of Ireland National League Personality of the Year. Paul Osam, Trevor Molloy and Colin Hawkins all make the list which is completed by Cork City boss Dave Barry and the club's midfielder Patsy Freyne. The winner will be announced next week.

Teams

Possible Line-Outs:

Bray Wanderers: Walsh; Tresson, Doohan, J Lynch, Farrell; Kenny, Tierney, Smith, Keogh; Byrne, Fox.

Finn Harps: McKenna; Scanlan; Boyle, Dykes, Minnock; Mohan, Harkin, O'Brien, Kavanagh; Speak, Mulligan.