Bohemians have chance to narrow gap

National League/Premier Division: Fresh from having pulled off a great comeback in Tuesday night's game against Derry City, Bohemians take on Cork City at Dalymount tonight with the aim, once again, of narrowing Shelbourne's lead at the top of the premier division table.

Stephen Kenny's side came from behind in midweek thanks in no small part to the heroics of Paul Keegan, who scored twice after coming off the bench at half-time. The former Bray Wanderers striker was, according to the Bohemians manager, "back to his very best", and would appear, therefore, to be in with a chance of displacing Robbie Doyle in tonight's attack.

Kenny's selection, however, will be shaped to a considerable extent by the ability of certain players to shake off a bout of the flu that has been affecting various squad members since before the Derry game.

"Damien Lynch, Jason McGuinness and Stephen Caffrey were all down with it the other night and only three of the 11 that started the Derry game actually trained today," said Kenny yesterday.

"That's not to say that most of them won't play against Cork but we'll have to wait and see just how everybody is close to the kick-off before making any firm decisions."

One player to definitely miss out will be left back Simon Webb, who is suspended, but there is some consolation for the hosts in the form of Mark Rutherford's return from a long-term hip problem. The winger is unlikely to start but, with Webb out, may well find himself back on the Bohemians bench.

City, who haven't lost in their last seven outings on the road, travel to Dublin looking to add to the recent victories at Drogheda and St Patrick's Athletic and Kenny concedes that the southerners will arrive still determined that they can still finish ahead of his own side in the table.

The visitors are, however, still without either John O'Flynn or Conor O'Grady, both of whom have returned to training but are still short of match fitness. Derek Coughlan returns to his former club carrying a slight ankle injury but the central defender is expected to be fit enough to start.

Pete Mahon, meanwhile, is another manager battling a flu epidemic with a string of first-team players either ruled out or doubtful for tonight's Belfield encounter due to a bug that has swept through the squad. Mark Rooney, Niall Donnelly and Gavin Whelan are all expected to miss tonight's game against Shamrock Rovers while Alan Cawley is still suspended.

"In the circumstances, I'll just have to hope that John Martin (groin) and Darragh Ryan (knee) are fit enough to play because the squad really isn't big enough and so we don't have too many other options," says Mahon, whose team is still struggling to haul itself off the bottom of the table.

"This game and the one against Waterford will be vital because we really need there still to be something very much at stake when we play Derry after that. For that to happen, though, we need to start scoring goals because while we've been tight enough defensively, it hasn't been happening for us at the other end."

Their prospects of getting the first of those victories are not helped by the fact that Rovers have pretty much a full squad, with Liam Buckley adding Trevor Molloy and Trevor Croly to the group beaten in Tolka Park on Tuesday, when Shelbourne staged a second-half rampage after trailing 2-0 at the break.

"You wouldn't exactly have put money on it turning out that way at the interval," said Buckley yesterday. "But the lads defended a bit too deep in the second half, probably a bit too keen to preserve what they had rather than looking to build on it."

Premier Division

How they stand

P W D L F A Pts

Shelbourne 28 15 10 3 43 22 55

Bohemians 27 14 8 5 46 30 50

Cork City 29 11 12 6 39 25 45

Shamrock Rvrs 29 10 9 10 36 34 39

St Patrick's 27 8 13 6 36 32 37

Waterford Utd 29 9 9 11 36 52 36

Longford Town 27 8 10 9 38 36 34

Drogheda Utd 29 7 8 14 28 40 29

Derry City 28 5 12 11 28 42 27

UCD 29 4 9 15 18 35 21