Stuy Bourne says he understands Damien Duff's frustration at the delay in finalizing Shears' future, but he hopes the Dubliner can stay at Torquay Park and keep the club on the up.

Shears finished fourth this season and if St. Pat's beat the Bohemians in the FIA Cup final on Sunday, it will be enough to get them into Europe.

The Reds have been on an upward trend since Duff took over in 2021, but the former Republic of Ireland international admitted last weekend that he is currently unsure about his future.

In June, Hull City owner Akon Ilkari took a majority stake in the club and vowed to invest in the first team, youth academy and club facilities.

Duff's current contract is due to expire this year and while it would be shocking if Shears did not offer him a new contract, that has not yet happened.

"I've got nothing in front of me," Duff said." Everything seems to be moving very slowly."

Speaking on RTÉ Soccer's podcast, former Shayes midfielder Bourne sympathized with Duff's plight: "There's no doubt that this is the time of the season when you want to sign players.

"In reality, you're probably talking to players four or five weeks in advance, so it's not ideal.

"When you look at what's going on at Cloverleaf Rangers, if you're Pat, Derry, Boggs, Shears, you think, 'Look, let's get here, let's get here before they do, let's take advantage of the situation'.

"For Damien Duff, if we're told that we do have a certain Bob investing in the game, then he'd want that now wouldn't he? He wants to recruit the best players.

"So he must be frustrated.

"Hopefully that will change this week and I expect that might happen."

Paul Corry agrees that Duff has got Shayes on the right track but warns that they have a long way to go before they can really challenge at the highest level.

"I think closing the gap on Shamrock Rovers is going too far, but if you look at how they have gone from promotion to promotion you can see they finished seventh last year, fourth this year and in between they reached the FIA Cup final," said Corry.

"You can see Duff are building the cornerstones of stability. Last year they were hard to beat. This year it's basically the same, but when they control the ball and attack, they have a little more quality. They looked more threatening in the final third.

"A lot of that is down to Jack Moylan (who is going to Lincoln City). They have been missing Shaun Boyd for most of the season and he could have come on to fill some of the gaps, but that has been the case. It may take three or four to bridge the gap with Derry and Cloverleaf Rovers.

"But they are not that far away. You can definitely see him set up against them and they are probably one of the most frustrating and difficult teams in the league to play against.

"I can understand Duff's frustration. He can obviously see where this team is and where they are going. Let's put it this way, they're not going to get too far. But they're still probably a little bit incomparable to a team like the Cloverleaf Rangers."