Pat Devlin is confessing to just a hint of a crisis of priorities as he prepares to take Bray Wanderers into the first of the FAI Cup semi-final ties against Shelbourne at Tolka Park this afternoon (5.30).

Ironically, Bray's best cup run since they won the trophy in 1990 comes at a time when they are embroiled in an increasingly urgent struggle to protect their Premier Division status.

Now Devlin, who has assumed something approaching cult status at the club in the wake of his achievement nine years ago, finds it difficult to say which prize he covets most.

"In the sense that the Premier Division is the place for every ambitious club, it's all important that we stay up," he said.

"But the feel-good factor at the club was unbelievable after we had brought home the cup for the first time - everybody would love to experience it again.

"Our intention is to succeed on both fronts and after coming through a bad patch in mid-season, I honestly believe that we are good enough to do it."

Bray's spirited recovery is all the more meritorious given the fact that they have had to make do without Jason Byrne and Aidan Lynch since that punitive championship game at Sligo on January 30th.

To compound their troubles, John Ryan, the hat-trick hero of the 1990 cup success, has missed their recent games with a groin problem which is yielding only slowly to treatment.

Officially Ryan is said to be a doubtful starter for today's game, but given his experience and the influence he exerts on those around him, it will be a surprise if Devlin doesn't find a role for him at some juncture in the 90 minutes.

If Ryan is the player capable of putting it all together for them up front, there is little doubt that the return of Mick Doohan from Dundalk has been the catalyst in the new sense of discipline at the back.

From a situation in which they were conceding goals with embarrassing haste, their defence has now tightened to the point where they can boast 11 clean sheets since Christmas.

Colm Tresson, whose penalty eventually broke an abrasive Sligo team in their protracted quarterfinal tie, has also contributed handsomely to that record and with Dom Tierney and Stephen Fox growing in stature as a formidable midfield pairing, they are currently a lot more compact than their championship placing suggests.

For Shelbourne the great motivation is a place in the final for a fifth consecutive year and the satisfaction of moving still closer to the record of six successive appearances, which their arch rivals, Shamrock Rovers, achieved in the 1960s.

They, too, have championship pressure, but it's markedly different to the type that bears down on Bray. In spite of last Sunday's setback in Derry, they are still in third place in the table, still optimistic of giving themselves an each-way chance of qualifying for European competition next season.

For a club which unaccountably struggled to deliver on their potential in the opening half of their programme, their subsequent rate of progression was remarkable. Before coming undone at the Brandywell, they had strung together a sequence of important wins which had the effect of renewing the disappointment of those expensive early season setbacks.

Much of that improvement derives from the fact that after a long period of trial and error manager Demot Keely has at last got his defence playing to pedigree. Now, however, he faces an anxious wait before knowing if Tony McCarthy will be able to join Pat Scully in the pivotal positions.

Tony Sheridan and Declan Geoghegan, two other casualties in the Derry game, are also involved in a scramble to make the deadline and added to the list of earlier defections it may serve to minimise the perceived gap in standards between the teams.

Crucially, however, Shelbourne have Stephen Geoghegan leading their search for goals and with the striker showing signs of a return to his vintage form of a couple of seasons ago, that could be the difference at the end.