The time allocated for celebration already over, the Bohemians players were back down to business yesterday. The club may have waited 23 years for the league title it won on Sunday but it is this weekend's Harp Lager FAI Cup final down the road at Tolka Park that is already the focus of attention for everybody around Dalymount.

Most of Roddy Collins's men have little more to do than keep their bodies ticking over - fitness, after all, is not an issue and there are unlikely to be many changes from the side that overwhelmed Kilkenny to clinch the title.

For central midfielder Kevin Hunt, though, there is a little more than that to be achieved over the next few days. Having been forced to sit out Sunday's victory with a thigh strain there is a place to be won back. Given the scale of his contribution to the side over the past couple of years that should mean little more than proving his fitness but the 25-year-old is taking nothing for granted.

"I've got a bit to do but hopefully I'll be all right," he says. "Getting to play is obviously important to me, but even more so now after Sunday's game. At least if you're out there you're thinking about everything that's going on in the game but it was much harder to take from the bench, the time just seemed to drag and afterwards it was really agonising waiting for the Shelbourne game to finish."

With such a dramatic turnover at Dalymount Park over the past couple of seasons, Hunt is pretty much one of the veterans at the place now, an early and highly successful acquisition by Collins at a time when the small, skilful midfielder might not have been everybody's idea of what was required for what was then a relegation battle.

It didn't take long for the Englishman - who had had spells in the lower divisions in his own country before taking off in order to play in the Far East - to make his mark, though. A string of impressive performances from the midfielder helped the Dubliners to stay up and last year he was probably the club's best player.

This season has been more difficult with Hunt remarking that "I was playing well enough up until Christmas but since then between injuries and suspensions, I've had a few problems."

Despite his occasional absences, though, he played a crucial part in the club's successful campaign and, for his trouble, received the first winner's medal of his professional career.

On Sunday he is hoping to double his tally with a win over a Longford side that Bohemians have already beaten three times in the league this season. On paper the statistics make the task look rather straightforward but Hunt remains cautious about his side's prospects.

"Realistically I don't think you could read too much into the games," he says. "We beat them well up there the first time all right, but when they came to Dalymount around Christmas we were a little fortunate to be honest, they dominated the game but we still managed to win it. Then, last week, they were missing a few of their regulars so the record probably flatters us a little bit."

Whatever happens fourth time around, Hunt is likely to be a central part of things at Dalymount again next season where he still has a year to run on his contract.

Shelbourne yesterday confirmed that they have signed the 21-year-old former Ireland Youths international defender, Kevin Doherty, who had recently returned home after a stint at Liverpool.