League Preview: Shelbourne -v- Shamrock Rovers

SHELBOURNE

The Reds host the Hoops at Tolka Park on Friday evening (kick off 7.45pm).

Having earned their first win of the season last Friday night – a 1-0 home win over Bohs – there was disappointment for Damien Duff’s side three days later when they lost 2-1 to Dundalk in Oriel Park.

Speaking to shelbournefc.ie Damien Duff spoke about the atmosphere at Tolka Park. “People have said it to me, hardcore fans, people here for years, they’ve commented on the atmosphere, the electricity at Tolka, the kind of buzz created in the Riverside last Friday has been too rare here over the past 20 odd years.

“This is such a special place, it’s built for big nights. We want to bring them back every time we play here. I’ve said it before many times, the fans have lifted us, now we’re doing everything to return that feeling to them, make them proud, and give them a reason to rock the place every Friday night.” 

Duff believes that after Rovers’ recent poor run of results they will be even more dangerous opponents. “Top teams go one, two, three games without a win, they become very dangerous. I guess they can feel frustrated and hard done by some of their results so far but listen we can say the same thing.

“We’ve lost games we deserved to win, and same with Drogheda opening night, we deserved to win. We know that frustration of not getting the results the performances are due.

“We’ve had a few hard luck stories which ties in with last year a bit. The main difference is we know there’s a lot more to come. The players are receptive to coaching and hungry for hard work, they’re great guys to work with, and the big thing for us is we’re seeing them making improvements. 

“We’ve started well and strung some decent performances together, but that’s not enough. Now it’s about turning good displays into points on the board.

“We want to bring a winning mindset to the club, we’re not about finding solace in narrow defeats after a good performance, we won’t be content with competing. 

“We’ll never drop our standards from a staff point of view, this year we’re lucky to have some more senior players in the group with that mindset. They think the exact same. Performances are great and they usually go hand in hand with points. Hasn’t happened for us yet, but we’re confident that will flip. We do have high expectations. Performances have to turn into points. The sob stories are frustrating but you don’t have time to dwell on it with a team of Rovers quality coming to Tolka.”

SHAMROCK ROVERS

The Hoops travel to Tolka Park on Friday still in search of their first win of the season. The tally of three points from their opening four games is their worst since they were relegated in 2005. However, if they can get a win it would give them a larger tally from the same stage of the season as when they finished runners up in 2009 and champions in 2010.

“If you only look at results you can obviously understand why people would be frustrated and I understand that ,”said Hoops Head Coach Stephen Bradley about his side’s start to the season when speaking to shamrockrovers.ie on the eve of the game.  

“All of us wanted more points than we have right now but the performances as a whole – taking away our defensive display on Monday – have been good. We just need to not lose sight of that, relax and focus. Trust what we do and what we’ve done the last few years.”

Rovers poor start could well be attributed to the loss of Pico Lopes who picked up a three game suspension after his red card in Sligo in the opening game of the season so the Hoops will be very happy that the Cape Verde international is available once again.

“I think any team misses good players. We know Pico is one of the top defenders in the country, so we missed him and it’s great to have him back.”

Last time out Rovers played out what Bradley called “the strangest game I’ve been involved in”. The Hoops battled back from two goals down to draw the match on Monday at home to Cork City in what was the club’s first 4-4 draw for 59 years.

“It could have been 6-6 or we could have won 8-6, it was one of those type of games. A really strange game with lots of opportunities for both teams that you don’t get very often.”

The xG according to Wyscout was 4.31 Rovers to 1.46 City, 31 shots (13 on target) to 13 (10 on target) with a corner count of 17 to 1. Rovers trailed by two goals going into the last six minutes of the match but goals from substitutes Simon Power and Sean Hoare (in the 97^th minute) earned the Hoops a point.

“We never feel we’re beaten, we never feel we’re out of the game and we keep going to the final whistle. We’ve shown that on a number of occasions throughout the years. The players deserve tremendous credit for that; they fought to the end and got the point.

“I think our attacking play on Friday night was brilliant and Monday was just as good. I don’t think we’ve created so many clear-cut opportunities in a long time, so the attacking side of things is really good. But on Monday we let ourselves down with basic errors and we got punished.

“They’re top defenders and they had an off night. It just happened that three together had an off night, which is very unusual. We made basic errors which we don’t normally do. It’s very unlike us but hopefully, that’s it now out of the system and we’ve no more nights like that.”

Looking ahead to Friday, Bradley said: “It’ll be a difficult game for us, I’ve no doubt about that. I’ve watched all their games and you can see that they’re very well organised. Damien (Duff) always has them well organised so it’ll be a difficult game, and throw in that it’s a Dublin Derby and that they’re in good form. It has all the makings to be a really good game.”

Referee: Paul McLaughlin

MATCH STATS

The last time Shamrock Rovers lost a competitive first team game to Shelbourne in Tolka Park was a 2-1 defeat in the 2012 FAI Cup quarter-final. Philly Hughes got both goals for the Reds that day. Sean Gannon scored late for the Hoops in that match which saw Stephen Glass in temporary charge of Rovers following Stephen Kenny’s departure from the club.

It is 19 years since Shelbourne’s last home league win over Shamrock Rovers which was a 1-0 on 19^th March 2004.

Last season Shels lost three of the matches against Shamrock Rovers with the other game being a scoreless draw in Tolka Park in September. However, two of those for the Hoops wins came thanks to very late goals. Aaron Greene got the winner in the 88^th minute in the 2-1 win in April in Tolka. Having led twice in the league game in Tallaght in October, thanks to goals from Shane Farrell, Rory Gaffney broke the Reds hearts with a 94^th minute winner.

PREDICTION

2-0 away win  

Shelbourne

Injured: Jad Hakiki, Sean Boyd, Shane Griffin

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

Shamrock Rovers

Injured: Ronan Finn

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

Stephen Bradley picks out Power and Clarke performances as positives from ‘a really strange’ 4-4 draw - https://t.co/94rjArr8tjhttps://t.co/eKBF8aPdcY

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) March 8, 2023