Tom McNulty may be the only one of the home side's players at Oriel Park this evening who remembers the heartbreak of the 1993 Harp Lager FAI Cup final, but in the stands there will be very few who have forgotten Dundalk's last appearance at Lansdowne . . . nor Greg Costello's role in sending the Lillywhites home with their tails between their legs.

Just short of an hour had gone when Mick Neville's clearance from a corner started a break which led to the only goal of the game. Around half of the Shelbourne team were involved in the move by the time the ball reached the back of Alan O'Neill's net, but it was Costello whose name went into the record books as the man who put it there. A close-range header, after Garry Haylock had floated in a cross to the far post, was enough to decide the game and earn the Dubliners their first cup triumph since 1963.

Since then Costello has won two more cup medals and scored Shelbourne's only goal in the 1995 final, when the club was beaten by Derry, so it's hardly surprising that the 27-year-old full-back can't help dreaming of another big May day.

"Obviously we want to win the league; for a few years now we've had good enough players around the club to win it and the fact that we haven't done it since '92 isn't really good enough," he says. "If we lose to Dundalk, there'll be people who'll say that it's the best thing that could have happened because we can concentrate on the league, but there's no way that's true either. Every game is there to be won and it would be great to go all the way again."

Costello feels that if the team can beat Dundalk for the fifth time this season, Shelbourne are well capable of mounting a serious challenge for the domestic treble. The team have already reached the final of the League Cup, and they've proven beyond any doubt that they have the mentality to lift their game for big cup ties. This season, he argues, they have displayed that extra bit of steel required to go the distance in the championship.

"I don't know what it is exactly, but the sort of games we were slipping up in over the past couple of seasons have been different this year. The game against Finn Harps, when we came from 2-0 down and won 3-2, for example; a year ago that sort of thing just wasn't happening for us, but this year we've come back to win games or nick points and it's made all the difference."

Defensively, the team's record is considerably shakier than their main rivals for the title, but Damien Richardson's approach has been to accept the concession of goals as part of the price to be paid by a team whose priority is to score at the other end. As a result, Costello and his colleagues at the back have been given a licence to push forward. His speed, the quality of his passing, and his ability to link up well with the likes of Dessie Baker, Tony Sheridan and, most recently, Pat Fenlon, has made him one of the key factors in the team's strong showing this season.

Costello may have started out as an attacking midfielder, but with the freedom he enjoys, he says he prefers his current role at the back these days. "It's not like I'm tied down. A lot of our moves start with Alan Gough throwing the ball out and so you're able to push forward with the ball at your feet.

"We play good football out of defence, although we've maybe learned a bit that you have to strike a bit of a balance between trying to play attractive football and doing what you have to to get the result, which is what matters at the end of the day."

Tonight, as ever, Shelbourne will be hoping they get the balance right against a side managed by Costello's former boss at Tolka Park, Jim McLaughlin. The home side's season more or less depends on the outcome for they would do very well salvage a European place from their current position in the league.

That, you might think, should give the locals the edge in the motivational stakes. But then Shelbourne have played a significant role in curtailing Dundalk's interest in the game's other two competitions and Costello insists that by 10 o'clock this evening, they may just have made it three out of three.