Doherty hoping that Elliott can make debut in Dublin derby

Shelbourne manager Kevin Doherty is hoping that former Republic of Ireland international Stephen Elliott will be cleared to make his debut for the Dublin club on Monday night in the EA Sports Cup encounter with Bohemians. The 32 year-old was signed on Thursday night but must now get international clearance as his last club was Carlisle United.

Elliott’s time there ended with a long spell on the sidelines following an Achilles injury in October 2014 that ultimately required two operations. The second, late that season, apparently sorted the problem out but the player was still released and had been training with Shamrock Rovers since January.

Pat Fenlon said that he was unable to sign the striker as he did not have the budget but mention of him in a conversation with Doherty led to the pair meeting and the Shelbourne boss was immediately struck how by how much the Dubliner wanted to get back playing.

“We have two lads here on loan from Rovers (Cian and Dylan Kavanagh) and I’d be talking to Pat pretty regularly about how they are getting on,” says Doherty, whose team plays Waterford United this evening, “and so Stephen came up in conversation because he was out there training with them. Pat said he was doing really well and so it sort of went from there.

“He’s certainly not joining us for the money,” says Doherty. “He’s just desperate to play and that came across from the moment we sat down to talk. He’s a terrific lad and while we have to wait on the international clearance I’d hope that he might be available for Monday’s game.

“He’s been training for three months so he’s fit, maybe not match-fit, as they say, but then his ‘not match-fit’ might be okay for us; certainly last night in training you could see the reaction of the other lads to him; we’ve a young squad and even aside from goals there’s so much he could bring to the squad; like Duffer at Rovers last year, in terms sitting down and talking to players, helping with their development.

“He has signed until the end of the season and we’ll see what happen then but it was a no-brainer from my point of view. Chances to sign players of his quality don’t come my way too often and I just couldn’t see a downside to it. I’m absolutely delighted to get him.”