Stuart Byrne will be Shelbourne's only absentee as the league leaders head for Flancare Park this evening in the hope of maintaining their grip on things at the top of the Premier Division table. The former Longford midfielder is suspended and in his absence Thomas Morgan looks to be in line to return to the Dublin side's starting line-up.
Pat Fenlon has other options to weigh up in the wake of Tuesday night's eventful 4-2 defeat of Shamrock Rovers but may reward his players for their impressive second-half performance by sticking with very much the same 11 that started the Tolka Park game.
"We were wonderful for the first 10 minutes and should been a couple up before Rovers really got into the game at all," says Fenlon. "It's just pleasing that after that we showed the character we did to come through and win the game."
Alan Matthews has a close to full strength squad to choose from for this evening's game against his old club although, having missed last week's cup final, Darragh Sheridan looks certain to sit this one out. In his absence the hosts could be unchanged in front of what Matthews hopes will be a good crowd.
"Sunday was a fantastic night for us up here, the people showed everyone involved in the club how much the victory meant to them. It's good now that this game is against the league leaders," says the Longford boss.
Still aiming to maintain their challenge for a place in Europe after last weekend's defeat at Lansdowne Road are St Patrick's Athletic who, once again, have a long list of problems ahead of the visit of Waterford United.
Paul Osam, who picked up a hamstring problem earlier this week, looks set to miss out as does Clive Delaney, who hurt his ankle towards the end of the cup game. Davy Byrne has both a knee injury and sore ribs while Kharim El Khebir has a bout of 'flu and Colm Foley is struggling with a calf strain.
"It's not ideal," says manager Eamonn Collins, "but we did well in midweek against Drogheda even though we didn't defend well which is frustrating because other than that we deserved to win the game."
Waterford manager Jimmy McGeough is battling a 'flu epidemic although he is hoping that the worst of it is behind his squad.
"I was trying to figure out how we did so poorly against Drogheda last week and then three of them said that they had nothing left in the tank at the end. Since then a lot of the lads have come down with it and Brian Mallon and Vinny Sullivan would still be doubtful for the trip to Dublin."
Certain to be missing are Dan Connor and John Frost who are suspended.
Drogheda United and Derry City meet at United Park this evening where Paul Doolin will add Pat Scully to the squad after completing a suspension.
City have Peter Hutton suspended but Eamonn Doherty may have recovered from the calf strain to play in midfield while Gavin Dykes is hoping that Liam Coyle is fit enough to at least take a place on the bench.
