For everyone at Bray Wanderers it's straightforward enough. Having been the victims of grand larceny in last year's semi-final, tonight's Harp Lager FAI Cup third round tie at Bohemians offers a welcome opportunity for revenge.

On the northside of Dublin they're probably trying not to think about it although, when asked if it's been an issue within the camp during this week's build-up, Pete Mahon laughs a little edgily and points out "we've been reading about it in the papers every day so it'd have been difficult to forget about".

Mahon, of course, wasn't around for the controversial game or its aftermath. Having left St Francis three seasons ago he had only a brief spell at St Patrick's Athletic before being asked to link up with Roddy Collins at Dalymount Park. This evening, though, will bring back plenty of memories for the man who guided the then non-league club from the Liberties to the 1990 Cup final where they played Wanderers after having beaten Bohemians at the semi-final stage.

At Lansdowne Road the final was a disappointingly one-sided affair with Bray dominating and looking well worth their 30 win. "It was mad stuff," Mahon still chuckles when he thinks about it, though, "all sorts of weird things happened that year so it ended up being called the `year of the underdog' and to be part of something like that was really special."

At that stage Mahon pretty much appeared to be St Francis and there was considerable shock when he decided to leave after 17 seasons in charge. Collins' management style, he admits is slightly different to his own but after the ill-fated four-week spell at Richmond Park there's no mistaking his gratitude to the man who provided him with a route back into the heart of the club scene here.

"Initially Brian Kerr gave me a bit of break and asked me to do a bit of scouting for him but I realised that I missed the day to day involvement after having it for so long and Roddy was the one person who asked me to come on board."

After years of doing things on a shoestring with part-timers, he says that the chance to work full-time with a professional panel has been a huge bonus for him even if the slightly back-seat role takes a bit of getting used. "Let's be straight about it, at every club there's a manager and an assistant manager and nine times out of 10 the assistant gets to voice an opinion and that's about it."

Mahon runs the club's FAS course along with Liam O'Brien, helps organise the educational side of the youth development programme and also manages the Eircom League under-18s (also with O'Brien) as well as the Leinster under-17s.

The build up to this game has been hectic and even without the baggage of having been involved in last year's controversial fixture he knows only too well what's at stake for everybody. Still, he admits to being slightly surprised at the way Pat Devlin has stoked the fire over the course of the season, particularly at a time when he has such a strong team. "I think Devlin's done a great job there for a long time but he's made some great signings this year and I thought he would just have let his players do the talking for him."

"They certainly did it when we were out there in December because they gave us a terrible hiding. Then again we beat them well the first time we met so it's going to come down to who performs on the night. And if we both perform then, for one thing, it'll be a great match but I'd have to say that we should just about have the edge on them."