Bets off if Shelbourne get Dalymount result

The managers of the Eircom League's two main title contenders are likely to have virtually unchanged squads to choose from this evening when Shelbourne make the short trip to Dalymount for a game that could go a long way towards deciding this season's championship race.

Anyone planning a flutter on who gets to lift the silverware in November might be well advised to get their money down today for if Pat Fenlon's side beat Bohemians to move 11 points clear at the top the bookies may not be too keen on taking further bets on the Drumcondra side in the morning.

Shelbourne played as well as they have done all season when beating St Patrick's Athletic on Friday. That was their fifth successive league win, and if they can reproduce enough of that form this evening even to secure a single point then they will leave Phibsborough in a very strong position.

Another win and, even with more than a third of the season to play, it would be hard to see them being caught.

Fenlon is likely to stick with the same starting line-up that laid the groundwork for Friday's 2-0 victory. Kevin Doherty is likely to be considered fit again but may have to settle for a place on the bench as Tony McCarthy and Jamie Harris continue in central defence and Dave Rogers starts again at left back.

In attack, Gerard Rowe looks set to be preferred to both Stephen Geoghegan and Ger McCarthy after the youngster seized his opportunity at the weekend by turning in an impressive performance against his former club.

Stephen Kenny, meanwhile, admits there will probably be one or two changes but, he says, "it will be nothing wholesale, we've been playing well of late and we're not going to panic just because we lost one game."

The Bohemians manager admits his team had no complaints about the defeat in Waterford where, he says, the locals appeared to react to vociferous support from their fans, prompted it seems, by behind the scenes tensions.

"It was strange but whatever it was their players reacted to it," says Kenny. "They played as if their lives depended on it and they never gave us an inch."

Tonight, he insists, a draw would not be too disastrous a result for his side. "They've got to go to Cork, play us another couple of times and play Rovers three times. There's a lot of football to be played so I don't see this deciding anything although, obviously, it's a game we would want to win while a win for them would be a blow."

The hosts are still without Jason McGuinness, Thomas Heary and Mark Rutherford but, like their rivals, they possess a leading scorer who has hit a bit of form and a couple of other players who have impressed recently.

"We've probably been more fluid when we've played well but Shelbourne have kept a lot of clean sheets, they've been very impressive at the back. We've got some good players, though, and we'll go into the game confident that we can beat them and open the whole thing up again."