Shelbourne host Derry City at Tolka Park in the capital of Ireland, Dublin, for this Ireland Premier Division round 5 clash early Saturday morning Beijing time. This league is, as I have written last summer in my European club competition qualifying preview round previews, surprisingly low level as a whole.. Especially considering that Ireland do have a strong football culture. and have a decent national team. And also in the neighboring England there are professional football players even in 5th tier! The main explanation is that probably the fact that even the semi-promising players leave Ireland to play in England - or sometimes in mainland Europe - in their teens already. Irish clubs are sometimes capable of achieving a decent result every now and then in Europe against a lot bigger clubs, mainly through very relentless defending and physical football. Today’s match will be another intense, physical battle in front of loud Shelbourne fans! The goal expectancy is pretty low in my opinion, mainly because Shelbourne are not expected to play very aggressive football against a better, more experienced opponent - even at home.. A draw would probably satisfy them here.

Shelbourne were promoted from Division 1 for this season after dominating the second tier of Irish football losing just two matches. They definitely do belong at this level, and have a surprisingly competitive squad! Most of their players are young but talented for this level!  Indeed, the players’ average age is just 22.5 years. I recommend my fans to especially watch central midfielder Aodh Dervin, 22 closely this season. He joined the team from Longford in January. The team has an interesting new coach for this season, Damien Duff who played for example Fulham during his professional career. He is a true fighter and surely a demanding coach whom I expect big things as a coach in the future from! The visitors are the better team by raw class of course but I have been a little disappointed on them so far this season, especially offensively. They lack speed and good-quality passing. Shelbourne have looked organized this season and exceeded my expectations but are still under-valued by the betting market. They are only marginal under-dogs at home and Shelbourne +0.5 goals is the wise choice here for my fans and myself to win again. The probability is over 60%!