Damien: Shane’s come Far’

the players.”

Forrester continued: “It’s been good. It’s just to see if I have a feel for it. It’s not too serious at that level, it’s just a bunch of lads enjoying themselves.

DAMIEN DUFF has declared his love for Shelbourne ace Shane Farrell!

But it wasn’t love at first sight, admitted the former Chelsea and Ireland winger.

He had to give the 22-year-old a “rattle” to get him to the levels seen this season — and in Thursday’s scoreless draw with Shamrock Rovers, where Farrell was the standout player.

“Shane is gold dust,” said Duff. “It always goes back to the conversation I had with him after six or seven weeks.

Rattle

“Shane wouldn’t be the greatest trainer at times, I had to give him a little rattle.

“In pre-season he started slowly because I didn’t know the real Shane Farrell. For the last six months I’ve seen it.

“What a player, for me one of the standout players not in the team, but the league.

“He’s top, top class on and off the pitch, I love him.”

Farrell’s (above) distribution was one of the few highlights of a derby on Thursday that was short on goalscoring opportunities. than many expected at this stage of the campaign.

“We only focus on what we do, get points on the board,” insisted the Tallaght Stadium boss.

“We’ve been here before, this isn’t a team that just sprung up and are at the top and are a bit shook.

“We’ve been here before at the top of the league, we’ve been top of the league for most of this season. We understand what it’s about.

“If we lost (against Shels), it doesn’t change what we done for four, five, six years. I’m sure it (the title race) will fill some columns alright, but we’ll be okay.”

He added: “It doesn’t matter how close it is. If you offered me two points ahead with a game in hand, I’d have ripped your hand off at the start of the year.

“And that’s the position we have. We’re in a fantastic position, tonight is another point towards our goal, we move on.”

Fitness

Thursday’s Shels stalemate was far from a convincing performance by Rovers, who lined out with an unfamiliar backthree of Sean Gannon, Dan Cleary and Sean Kavanagh.

Some important players are returning to fitness at a key time, however, while Jack Byrne and Graham Burke are building up their matchfitness with each passing week.

“He (Byrne) was better. When we went down to ten men in Derry, he worked extremely hard, and he worked extremely hard tonight,” said Bradley.

“Some of his play was good again, just that final bit, sometimes it was a yard too far or too short, the ball was too hard.

“Sometimes you get that with players of Jack’s type. When it comes off, it wins you the game, but tonight it was just a little bit off.”

Bradley continued: “Pico (Lopes) and Seán (Hoare) are just there, they’re almost back.

“Lee (Grace) was suspended tonight, Richie (Towell) got back tonight as well.

“So we’re just there as a squad.

“Simon (Power) is a little bit longer. Everyone is back at the right time.”