Shels' Heary ready to complete all-Ireland win

Shelbourne captain Owen Heary has vowed his side will put the finishing touches to their first-leg display against Glentoran and book another Champions League glamour tie in Dublin tonight.

Heary’s men hold a narrow 2-1 lead in their all-Irish affair against the Belfast side after failing to secure the result their dominance deserved during the first leg last week.

And he warns that Sean Ward’s late strike for Glentoran served as ample warning that Shelbourne can ill afford to be so careless in the final third again if they are to progress to a second qualifying round clash with Steaua Bucharest.

Heary said: “We want to experience what happened last year again and we will be motivating ourselves by thoughts of a big match in the next round.

“Last year when we played Reykjavik we looked forward to meeting Hajduk Split, and when we played Split we looked ahead to Deportivo [La Coruna].

“It sometimes helps when you are inspired by thoughts of playing a massive club in the next round, and if we got through to face Steaua then we would have those thoughts again.”

Shelbourne largely dominated the first leg last week, as had been expected of a side who are currently in third place midway through their eircom League campaign.

But instead of being able to sit back against Roy Coyle’s men, they are now prepared to host a team brimming with momentum at Tolka Park after Ward’s 77th-minute effort gave the Northern Irish side hope.

“We created an awful lot of chances last week and I don’t think Glentoran really deserved to get their goal back,” added Heary.

“Everyone will expect us to win and we will remember the positives of last week, because it is always difficult to go away and dominate a team for 80 minutes like we did.”

Glentoran have a fine recent history of upsetting the odds away from home. At the same stage last season, they travelled to AC Allianssi of Finland after a first leg draw and won 2-1 despite going an early goal behind.

“We will take great encouragement from what happened in Finland last year after we had got a draw at home,” said Coyle, whose side can expect to be cheered on by a few hundred travelling fans.

“Had it stayed at 2-0 it would have been a mountain to climb but we finished very, very strongly and that gave me great encouragement.”