Shels miss Byrne for trip to Longford

League champions Shelbourne will have to do without leading scorer Jason Byrne for tonight’s clash with Longford Town (ko 8pm).

Irish international Byrne, who took his tally for the season to 12 goals in 14 games with a penalty in the midweek draw against Cork City, limped out of that game with a hamstring problem and has failed to recover in time for the trip to Flancare Park.

Shels manager Pat Fenlon, ordered from the dugout during the Tuesday night draw with Cork City, will also be without knee injury victim Jamie Harris. Kevin Doherty comes in as cover.

Longford have plenty of their own injury problems with Paul Keegan, Darragh Sheridan, Stephen Paisley and Graham Gartland all missing last Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at St Patrick’s Athletic.

Town manager Alan Matthews will also have to cope with the absence of Alan Murphy and Sean Dillon, both of whom are serving one-match bans for reaching four penalty points.

Murphy was also sent off in midweek, receiving a straight red card early in the second half.

Matthews is a former Shels assistant manager and along with players Stephen O’Brien and Dessie Baker, will be facing his old club for the second time this season, having drawn the opener 1-1.