Owen Heary: 'You're wondering with boards, do they pay players or let them go?'

Owen Heary is confident that Shelbourne can mount a serious promotion challenge in the face of big-spending competition and the removal of the promotion play-off next season.

The Dubliner joined the chorus of voices criticising the decision that will see just one team promoted from the First Division in 2017 and three come down.

“It's tough on all the clubs,” Heary told extratime.ie following his side's comfortable 4-2 victory over Wexford in the Leinster Senior Cup, their first competitive game of the year.

The Reds are at home on the opening night of the league season as they host Longford Town, and Alan Mathews' side are one of the two favourites to challenge for the title.

“There's no given that Waterford will win the league but they have the finances to win it, and the same with Longford. We're all fighting for the one spot.

“That makes it difficult because we've no back-up plan after that. It's a case of either win it or stay in this division.

“If you look at last year, Limerick walking away with the league, it was grand as the rest of us had a play-off to try hit, but this year there's none.

“If one team walks away with it, crowds will probably be down as they won't come out to watch, and players will lack motivation as well as they'll have nothing to play for.

“And you're wondering with boards as well, do they pay players or let them go as there's no incentive there for them?”

The matter of paying players was an issue for Shels during Heary's time as a player at the club, but with the move to Dalymount Park secured he can look forward to a stable, if prudent, future.

And the club's underage structures are beginning to bear fruit, with several of the players on show graduates from the club's under-19s team.

One such product is Dayle Rooney, the 17-year-old striker trusted with a free role by his coach, and a player Heary compares to one of his former teammates, Chris Forrester.

“Dayle is 17 and he's scored a great goal on his debut. He's with the under-19s this year but he has ability.

“He reminds me a little bit of Christopher Forrest and that's high praise on him but I think he can live up to that. We asked him to play the number ten role.

“We gave him the free role and asked him to get on the ball, and he crossed in the ball that Adam [Evans] took inside and he was on-hand to finish it off.

“I was delighted for him to get his first goal and to play here in front of a few people.”

2017 will see Heary re-acquainted with former colleague and managerial adversary Pat Fenlon, who's taken over the reins at newly-minted Waterford.

Fenlon has brought in the likes of Patrick McClean from Derry City and Mark O'Sullivan from Cork City on a full-time basis, while Shels remain necessarily part-time.

However Heary has the belief that his squad can, if they stay within shooting distance, mount a challenge for the sole promotion spot come season's end.

“Pat is down with Waterford and he'll bring players in, especially with them having a decent budget. Pat can bring in players from England, and he's been over in Malta looking at players.

“For me, Pat is the best manager in the country, so it will be difficult to stop the likes of Longford and Waterford, but we're hopeful we'll be in the shake-up come the end of the season.”