Denying Rovers five in a row

looked to be going nowhere before Jon Daly’s elevation to head coach in May.

The cup win sent Forrester and team-mates into their winter break with a winning feeling. Now they want to kick off the new campaign with another trophy – and by sending a message to title rivals Rovers.

“It’s a big game,” said Forrester. “Obviously if you can get a win over them early, it might set a precedent for the rest of the season.

“We’ll be fully focused going into it, we won’t want to give them any edge.

“You can get confidence from beating teams that are going to be around you so we’ll be fully focused on trying to get the win.

“It’s silverware at the end of the day, we’re setting our targets on everything we possibly can and it’s perfect that this game is on Friday.

“It’s just a doubling effect that if we win it, we win it against Rovers.”

While some might play up the fact that Shamrock Rovers confirmed their status as four in a row champions at Richmond Park last year, Forrester doesn’t see it that way.

“They won the league on everyone else’s patch because they beat everyone,” he countered.

“Officially they won it on our ground but it doesn’t make any difference to me as a player.

“You know there is no game for them where it was won, the league was going there anyway whether they beat us that day or not.

“Yeah the title race could have gone longer but in terms of any game of them doing that, or any sense of that, I didn’t think it plays a part in what you want.

“I was more upset that they beat us in the game rather than that they won the league.”

I was more upset they beat us at all than them winning the league here at Richmond