National League Premier Division: They may be sitting snugly enough on the shoulders of the top two, but after the trauma of last week's cup exit Cork City travel to the capital this evening knowing they have a little bit to prove in their league game against Dublin City if they are to silence their growing band of critics.
The defending champions have taken just three points from 15 on the road so far this season and have yet to score a goal outside Turner's Cross in the league. Failure to win at Dalymount Park would be a significant blow, one that could hand an important advantage to title rivals Drogheda United and Derry City ahead of the break in the championship race and allow Shelbourne to overhaul them in the table. And their hopes of ending the poor run of away from are not helped by the fact that Dublin City confidence has been bolstered in recent weeks by a decent run of results with Dermot Keely's side having won three of four league games prior to dumping Monaghan United out of the cup at the second attempt.
"The players all know that it's an important match for us," said Damien Richardson yesterday, "and there's been a sombre enough mood in training over the last couple of days as people have focused on what we need to do.
"It's all a bit strange really because we attempt to play in exactly the same way away from home as we do at Turner's Cross but things haven't gone our way so far. A win over Dublin City would be an important boost before the rest period and when the transfer window reopens we'll look to get another couple of players in to strengthen things a little."
Richardson could do with additional options now as, he feels, the early start back for the Setanta Cup has been taking its toll on his players and he is hampered by the absence through suspension of Michael Devine and Danny Murphy. On the plus side, Neal Horgan and Billy Woods have both trained this week after recovering from hamstring problems and both look set to start.
Though he has everyone available, Paul Doolin is likely to freshen his side up with a change or two for the visit of Bohemians to United Park after they, too, were eliminated from the cup. "There's a bit of dented pride around the place," says the United boss, "and a lot of tired legs after, counting everything, around 25 games since the start of the season so we'll look at a couple of options," he says.
Shelbourne are also in a position to select an unchanged side for the home side against Bray Wanderers and Pat Fenlon may well do so as he seeks to maintain a strong run of home results against the seasiders. Derry City, though, will have to make at least one switch ahead of the trip to UCD with Pat McCourt set to miss the game after picking up a knee injury in a training ground collision earlier in the week.
The absence of the Northern Ireland international, who is likely to be replaced by Brian Cash, will come as good news to the students although they might be more concerned about their former team-mate Ciarán Martyn who has netted five goals in the northerners' last eight outings.
Waterford United will be desperate to build on last week's 5-0 cup victory over Douglas Hall although manager Mike Kerley makes no bones about the superior quality of the opposition.
"Obviously it'll be a far bigger challenge than last week's game," he says, "but it was still nice to get the win which has boosted confidence a little bit around the place. The key thing for us is to stay in touch with Longford and Bray and if we could win this game then we'd be tight enough to them going into the break."
