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Preview: Steaua Bucharest Vs Shelbourne

Pat Fenlon in pensive mode

Same again for Shels, with Harris the only change. – by Fintan Cassidy

Manager Pat Fenlon will be sticking as closely as possible to last week’s team, when he selects his side to face Steaua Bucharest in the second round second leg qualifying Champions League game on Wednesday evening. Fenlon will make just one enforced change with Jamie Harris coming in for the suspended Colin Hawkins.

The Shels manager believes that the experience gained in playing against the Romanian champions in the first leg game last week will be vital: “The lads that played last week know exactly what they are up against and what is needed to win this second game. In pressure European games like this, it’s all about experience and we’ll need to be at the top of our game if we are to advance.”

“Playing with one up-front takes a lot out of the players and we’ll definitely have to use all three subs. One or two of our lads may only last 60 or 70 minutes in this heat. Wes Hoolahan is only getting over his illness and is still quite weak but we might get the last 20 minutes or so out of him. Similarly at the back, Jamie will most likely start, but because he only has one full game under his belt after his lay-off, we may need to replace him later in the game with Curtis Fleming. I’ll wait until after training this evening before finalising things, but sometimes during a game, things don’t always go to plan and you have to adjust as you go along,” he told ShelsWeb.

Temperatures in Bucharest were at 40°C this afternoon and the Shels squad weren’t straying too far from their air-conditioned hotel. After breakfast at 10.00am this morning they all went swimming in the hotel pool followed by a couple of hours sleep. They had a team meeting in the afternoon before their final training session starting at 7.00pm this evening.

ShelsWeb guesstimated team: Delaney, Heary, Harris, Rogers, Crawley; Baker, S Byrne, Moore, Cahill; J Byrne; Crowe.