Eircom League Premier Division/Shelbourne 0 Longford Town 0: Both good and bad years for Shelbourne over the last few seasons have tended to include rocky runs at some point and after Pat Fenlon's side made it three draws and a defeat in four last night at Tolka Park their manager must be a little concerned his players are about to make life difficult for themselves once again.

The disappointing run of form is all the more surprising given the ease with which they beat Glentoran in their opening Setanta Cup game almost a month ago but the reality is they could have few complaints regarding the outcome last night.

With those handful of games under their belts Shelbourne might at least have been expected to have a little more in their legs, even early on, than opponents who were in town for their first competitive outing of the new season. Longford competed in every way, showing their usual resilience at the back along with a willingness to take the ball down and move it forward at speed.

Alan Mathews chose to play with just Dessie Baker up front but Alan Kirby proved effective at providing a link from midfield, a department where, for all Shelbourne's highly prized talent, they coped rather well.

Chances for the visitors were few. The best of what they had derived from Shelbourne mistakes, first from Steve Williams and then Dave Rogers, the latter a beneficiary of a selection reshuffle forced upon Fenlon by suspensions to Owen Heary and Ollie Cahill.

With Dean Delaney injured after a difficult night in Belfast earlier in the week and Alan Reynolds the closest thing to a reserve goalkeeper in evidence last night, the home side were looking for a strong showing from Williams but the early signs weren't good. With just under a quarter of an hour gone the Welshman mistimed his attempt to clear a tame Seán Dillon pass upfield and though he recovered his composure he would have been in trouble had John Martin been quicker to react.

Minutes later he lost his footing while stepping up to another back pass and it wasn't until midway through the second half he reminded us of what he is capable of when he reacted with lightening speed to tip Seán Prunty's shot over.

The closest Longford came to scoring the goal that might have yielded all three points came early on when Kirby fed Baker whose low cross for Prunty was blocked by Bobby Ryan who must have been relieved the ball bobbled just wide of the right hand post.

Kevin Doherty, one of four former Shelbourne players in the Longford starting line-up, caused Shelbourne as much frustration as anyone over the course of the night. While Glen Crowe did his best to pose a threat the better chances fell to Jason Byrne but the striker proved incapable of applying the required finish, taking, most notably, a couple of touches too many before shooting wide in the 57th minute and then hooking the ball past the left post after Joseph Ndo had done well to find him in a yard of space close to the target.

Late on there were a couple of penalty claims for the home crowd to get worked up over, the first of which - after Stephen Paisley appeared to benefit from contact between his arm and the ball - looked awardable but a winner then for the Dubliners would have been rough justice on Longford.

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Dillon, Hawkins, Rogers, Crawley; Ryan, Reynolds Crawford, 72 mins), S Byrne (Kearney, 62 mins), Ndo; Crowe, J Byrne.

LONGFORD TOWN: Kelly; Murphy, Doherty, O'Connor, Paisley; J Martin, Byrne, Fitzgerald, Prunty; Kirby; Baker.

Referee: P Whelan (Dublin).