Shelbourne skipper Owen Heary is hopeful a win over Glentoran at the Oval tonight could transform the club's somewhat faltering domestic season and set them on course to retain their league title in the face of increasingly tough competition from Cork and Derry City.

"We've had our problems so far," concedes the 28-year-old the right back, "but this could be a turning point for us. We've already improved a bit over the last few weeks and we're starting to play the way we know we can, but if we could win up there then I think that's certainly something we can build on as we move into the second half of the league season."

Heary blames Shelbourne's setbacks of the past few months on poor luck with injuries and a succession of sloppy goals conceded and suggests the two are not unconnected. "We haven't had a settled back four with the exception of the first few weeks and if you look back at it we were doing well then so I don't think there's any reason to believe we can't go on the sort of run we need now if we can get everyone fit and playing well together."

The two wins over St Patrick's Athletic last week came at a good time, he believes, but a good win over Glentoran would do far more to restore confidence to a side that has been second best to Cork over the past couple of months and still has Derry breathing down their neck in the Premier Division table.

"We'll go up to win it because that's our way but that's not to say it will be easy," he says. "You only have to look at the way Linfield outbattled us and outplayed us in the Setanta Cup final to see the Irish League isn't nearly as poor as some people were saying a few months back.

"I watched Glentoran play Longford and Linfield and they're a decent side. There'll be a bit of pressure on us to win but that's a good thing. We've generated a little bit of expectation with the way we played last year and that's great because you'd get completely sick of going into games with everyone believing you haven't got a chance of winning.

"For us," he says, "the priority is still to win the league again but we want to keep improving in Europe too. You can't simply look to live off doing well in a few games a year ago and if we could put together a bit of a run this summer then it could definitely be a big help here at home as well."