BACK AT the start of the season those who didn’t have Shamrock Rovers strolling to another league title tended to mark it down as a two-horse race involving the side that beat them narrowly in last year’s Ford-sponsored FAI Cup final.

Things have turned out differently with the two clubs currently chasing Derry City at the top of the table while St Patrick’s Athletic and even Bohemians lurk not too far behind.

Tonight, though, it really is do or die between the two pre-season favourites as Michael O’Neill’s men head to the Showgrounds for a cup tie that will end with one of these two clubs’ hopes of a double being dashed.

The visitors, it seems fair to say, have plenty on their plate without worrying too much about the cup and they won’t relish the idea of shoehorning a replay into their already hectic schedule. Still, losing to rivals who are level on points with them in the league table – albeit having played one more game – will not have been what their manager had in mind when he said recently that the cup is not a priority.

Both managers bring close to full-strength squads to the tie but O’Neill, who had more options at his disposal, is likely to make more changes as his players look to restore their own sense of superiority over a side they beat four times in the league and Setanta Cup earlier this season before suffering a reversal of fortunes.

Sligo have come out on top in both of the most recent encounters, including the enthralling drama in Tallaght last Friday week when an injury-time goal gave them the edge after Rovers were reduced to nine men.

A possible conclusion might be that Paul Cook and his men have got the measure of their rivals, but goalkeeper Brendan Clarke, who kept his side afloat in Tallaght on more than one occasion, disagrees and reckons that neither sequence of results is fair reflection of how closely matched the two teams are.

“You could say that looking at the results but in the first game we got beaten 1-0 and we easily could have won that,” he says. “Then you had the Setanta Cup games and in the second one we were 2-0 down. You can’t really judge that game. I think the two teams are fairly evenly matched. It’s just whoever performs on the day.

“I think the two teams know each other inside out so on any given day either team can win. We’ll just go out and try and perform to the best of our ability. If it’s good enough then happy days.”

When asked whether the timing of the game is fortuitous, he says: “I don’t think there is any good time to get Rovers. They are league champions.

“You just look at the squad they have. They could put two teams out.”

If tonight goes wrong, however, and the club is left to concentrate on securing a first title in 34 years then it does at least sound as if, in the wake of St Pat’s good result in Cork, he and his family have something of a fall back position.

“My granddad Dessie Byrne played (for St Pat’s) in the ’54 Cup final,” he says. “My uncle Seán Byrne played in the ‘74 for Pat’s against Finn Harps.

“I grew up in Ballyfermot, a local lad. All the family are big Pat’s fans. Unless Sligo are playing St Pat’s, they are on my side!”