Rovers hit by injuries

Shamrock Rovers manager Mick Byrne must wait until shortly before kick-off this evening (7.35) before deciding on the fitness of Jason Colwell, Gino Bazil and Tony Cousins for their televised clash with championship title chasers Shelbourne.

All three played in Sunday's 2-0 defeat by St Patrick's Athletic in which Colwell picked up a knee injury. But since then Cousins' bout of flu has grown steadily worse, while a back problem which has been causing Brazil problems for some time now has also become more of a problem.

The loss of Cousins, who has found the net 11 times for the club so far in the league campaign, would be a particular blow for the home side: the former Dundalk and Bohemians striker scored a hat-trick in the third of the two sides' league meetings last season.

If Cousins misses out, then Sean Francis is likely start up front along side Paul Stokes, but both have had injury problems this season, and the pair have scored just twice between them.

None of the three have been ruled out yet, but if none comes through their fitness tests then Byrne, who is already without the suspended Tommy Dunne, will have to do some severe juggling for one of his side's biggest games of the season.

"Last week was very disappointing and the result has increased the pressure on us to do something in this game," said Byrne yesterday. "It'd be a tough enough one to win at full strength, though, so I'd say we'll be struggling a bit if all of these lads end up missing out."

Byrne's fortunes are in stark contrast to those of his opposite number. Damien Richardson is hopeful he will have a full panel at his disposal this evening. Stephen Geoghegan and Dean Fitzgerald (groin) as well as Dessie Baker and Dave Campbell (ankle) have all been receiving treatment over the past week and all are reported to have reacted well.

Geoghegan and Baker played in last week's defeat by Bohemians, but the return of Fitzgerald or Campbell would allow Richardson the option of switching Greg Costello back to the full-back's position if he wished.

"It would be a great boost to have everyone back," says Richardson, who will also have the option of throwing in Declan Geoghegan from the start for the first time since the Dubliner broke a bone in his foot before Christmas.

"These games are always very tight, but with how the table looks now, Dublin derbies are probably going to be the most important games between now and the end of the season. It's important that we get the points from this one, and it would be good from a psychological point of view to put the Bohemians game behind us," he said.

Richardson feels that after one defeat by St Patrick's and two by Bohemians, his side needs to improve their record against their neighbours, while, for Byrne, the priority is to find a way of stepping up the quality of performances against the leading teams.

"Nobody here has been shouting about winning anything yet, these are still early days for us. But it would be good to beat Shelbourne to stay in the hunt and prove to people that we are becoming a team that is capable of challenging for trophies once again," he said.