Hoops set to ring the changes for Shels visit

THE big game hunters have become the hunted as the SSE Airtricity League title race enters an intriguing end game.

Champions Shamrock Rovers know they cannot afford to drop points against Shelbourne in Tallaght Stadium today (5.0), as that would open the door for Derry City to overtake them in the straight.

With that in mind, Stephen Bradley is expected to oversee a raft of team changes as his marathon men dip into their well of reserves.

Including the President’s Cup, this will be the 49th game of the season for the Hoops – and they still have a further seven fixtures to fulfil in the next three weeks.

After the 3-0 mauling by Molde in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night, Bradley could make as many as nine changes for the visit of the Reds. For starters, he has five players who featured as a substitute in Norway – Rory Gaffney, Neil Farrugia, Dylan Watts, Pico Lopes and Graham Burke,

In addition to them, Jack Byrne, Chris McCann, Sean Gannon and Richie Towell are also available.

But Bradley may be without Aidomo Emakhu on the run for the tape after the teenage striker damaged an ankle on Molde’s 4G pitch.

‘Aidomo looks like he’s going to struggle,’ admitted the manager. ‘You always run the risk on those pitches of doing something that Aidomo has done, and it looks like he’s gone over really badly on his ankle, which is unfortunate.’

The former Ringsend rivals drew 0-0 at Tolka last month but Bradley will demand maximum points in Tallaght, where the Hoops are unbeaten all season, to try and reclaim a fivepoint cushion on Derry.

Under Damien Duff, Shels are getting geared up for Sunday’s Extra.ie FAI Men’s Cup semi-final in Waterford.

With places in the team up for grabs the Reds shouldn’t lack incentive.

‘I’m not sure how they’ll come and approach it, but we’ve got to focus on what we do,’ said Bradley.

‘We didn’t do enough to get the win in Tolka recently, so we know that we must be better than that.

‘We’ve got to move on from Thursday and bring our level of performance that we did in Sligo.’