Nobody needs to tell Tony O'Dowd how important it is for Shamrock Rovers to win the Harp Lager FAI Cup this season - that he insists is why he's come to the club, to win things - but that doesn't stop anyone. For the last few weeks they've been telling him morning, noon and night.

The club have won at least one cup in every other decade this century and with time running out in this one, the fans are getting just a little edgy in the Rovers camp ahead of Sunday's big first-round showdown with landlords Shelbourne.

The record doesn't worry O'Dowd too much, he admits. "Like any record, it'll go eventually," he says, but winning the cup, well that's another matter, he doesn't need the slagging back at home from the St Patrick's fans if he can't answer it by waving a medal in their faces over the summer months.

O'Dowd, in fact, maintains that he was perfectly happy to see out the season at the Brandywell where he had already won a championship medal and helped the club to a cup final.

"Yeah, we were flying there in pre-season and I was really looking forward to another season with the club. But then they sold off James Keddy, who had been flying in the warm-up games, to Shelbourne and it seemed to confirm that they weren't a club that wanted to hold on to their best players any more."

Rovers had inquired after the Dubliner three times over the previous 18 months without any joy, but when O'Dowd told Felix Healy that he was now interested in moving on it didn't take long for Mick Byrne and Joe Colwell to persuade him that Rovers was the place to go and a deal was soon arranged.

It didn't take the 28-year-old long to prove his worth at his new club either. On his debut he made a couple of fine saves to help Rovers hold Derry to a 0-0 draw and two weeks later, he was the key difference between the two sides when Bohemians were beaten by three goals at Tolka.

For all that, O'Dowd recognises that the league is gone for this season and if Rovers are to start winning trophies again then the fastest way to do it just now is to see off Shelbourne this weekend and make their fans happy by maintaining the club's remarkable record in this competition.

"The problem is that it's pretty much the same for everyone at Shelbourne. They know that it's their only chance of silverware so you have this situation where the two teams are playing each other in what feels like a cup final when it's only the first round of the competition."

Like Shelbourne, Rovers haven't quite enjoyed the breaks this season, but O'Dowd insists that, even if they don't make it 25 wins this season, the good times are just around the corner.

"There's been a lot of rebuilding over the last year or two and maybe it's still a bit soon to be expecting things to all come together. I think there's still one or two gaps, but I think that Mick Byrne realises that too. He hasn't quite hit the formula that he's looking for, but he's knows what he trying to achieve and there's a lot of confidence around the club that he'll get us there."

The former St Patrick's Athletic player points to the fact that Rovers have lost just one more game than his old club and two more than leaders Cork. "We've drawn way too many, but I think that shows that we're not too far off the mark."

With that in mind, he reckons, that if the club can hold on to the third place slot in the table that they currently occupy then they'll be well set up for next season. Of course in the meantime, bundling Shelbourne out on Sunday, winning the cup and keeping the tradition-minded fans happy into the bargain wouldn't exactly do any harm either.