Shelbourne assistant Joey O’Brien believes Shamrock Rovers remain the best team in the country despite their surprising start to the new season.

The Hoops are still looking for a first win this campaign after a scoreless draw against Shels in Tolka on Friday, with O’Brien believing the Reds were full value for their point as goalkeeper Conor Kearns only had one save to make.

O’Brien was a two-time league winner with the Hoops before retiring to become Damien Duff’s number two last term and the former Irish international reckons his former employers will be fine over the long run.

“At the start of the season, you wouldn’t have called it. But they’re still the best team in the country so I’m sure they’ll be alright,” said the Dubliner, who felt a draw was a great result for his club.

“For me they’re still the best team in the country. The players they have on show, the talent they have, the budget they have, everything about them. So for us as a club to get a point off them with Conor having to make one save against them, shows how good we are defensively.”

Shels have scored just two goals in their opening five games, with three goals conceded and three clean sheets highlighting how they are reliant on their defensive organisation.

“On the other side of the game attacking in possession we have to improve on that and show our quality that we have, maybe the lads need to believe in themselves a bit more,” he said. “We have some serious young players here and they have to show it in these games.”

Rovers host St Patrick’s Athletic in a Dublin derby on Friday, and the visitors arguably arrive with greater concern hanging over them even though they are level on points with the champions. That’s because they are coming in off the back of three successive defeats and there were jeers from the crowd aimed at manager Tim Clancy following their 2-0 defeat to Bohemians.

Defender Joe Redmond admitted he could understand fan frustration with the overall performance.

“I don’t blame them being angry with us to be honest,” he said, “But it’s us out on the pitch who are in control of the way the game goes and we didn’t control any of that game. We’ve got to pick ourselves up. We’re in Tallaght next week and can’t afford to play like that.

“We’re not pointing fingers at individuals because we’re all in this together. We need to stick by each other and put things right and digest it now. Three losses on the trot, and one goal scored. We’ve conceded too many that last year we wouldn’t have conceded from because we were more robust. We need to get back to that.”