Shelbourne aim to keep hopes alive

It's a tricky week for the Danish sports media with readers having to be reminded ahead of last night's visit of Italian giants Lazio to FC Copenhagen how peripheral the game here is to the European big time and then pumped up again in time for the much more promising encounter between Brondby and Shelbourne.

The older Danes remember well what it was to be considered real underdogs but after 23 year of a professional league, the players who take the field this evening for this UEFA Cup qualifying round tie know only too well that great things are expected of them.

Brondby manager Aage Hareide said yesterday that he feels a two-goal win would leave his side fairly sure of progressing, "but we must not concede any goals either and we know Shelbourne are capable of scoring from their games against Rosenborg so nobody is saying that this is going to be easy".

Certainly not Dermot Keely who, while keenly aware of his side's status as second favourites going into the tie, is determined that the Dubliners will still be in the hunt when the two sides meet again at Tolka Park in two weeks time.

He would, he says, be slightly more comfortable about their chances of achieving that if his newly installed captain, Jim Gannon, was sure of playing but a hamstring problem continues to leave the former Crewe defender doubtful and prevent Keely from settling on his starting line-up.

"In training he didn't look comfortable," Keely said yesterday, "and if he's not comfortable tomorrow then he won't play. But there's no panic about it, we've got plenty of people who can play instead so if he's not right we'll leave him be until Sunday." Assuming the new man does miss out then Peter Hutton will play in central defence with either Pat Fenlon or, more likely, Jim Crawford partnering Davy Byrne in midfield. If Gannon passes a late test, however, then both he and Hutton could both start.

Elsewhere, Jonathon Minnock and Brian Byrne will both make their competitive debuts in a side that will contain six regular starters from last season. The Shelbourne boss's main concern regarding the opposition, he says, is the pace of their lively winger Thomas Lindrup who is likely to keep both Richie Baker and Owen Heary on their toes but he will also be anxious that Dessie Baker and Richie Foran take some of the pressure off defensively by presenting some sort of threat to the home side's back four.

Hareide has a handful of senior internationals in his side although a couple, Magnus Svensson of Sweden and Oumar Barro of Burkino Faso, are among four players who will miss the game through injury. "We have some problems," the Brondby coach said yesterday, "but our full back, Dan Anton Johanson, is back after missing our game at the weekend with the flu and overall we have a settled side that has made a good start to the new league season." They have, in fact, won their first three games, scoring 10 goals and conceding just one.

The brief run has enthused their frustrated supporters who, after three straight league titles have now seen their team finish second for the last three seasons. Poor results in Europe, meanwhile, have compounded their disquiet and the club's vastly experienced goalkeeper, Mogens Krogh - Peter Schmeichel's long serving number two in the national set-up - says that the players owe it to the fans to continue their recent improvement by reaching the first round proper in a bit of style.