The visit of Shamrock Rovers to St Patrick’s Athletic is the standout match of the FAI’s cup’s second round draw with the 24 times winners set to take on the holders in Inchicore over the last weekend of this month.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Rovers boss Pat Fenlon. “It’s shit or bust, as they say; you win or you get knocked out. There’s a different feel to it, a different atmosphere too. In the league you feel you’ve got another chance the next week but in the cup if you lose you’re gone. We have to make sure we beat Pats and get in the next round of the cup.”
After St Patrick’s ended their long, barren run in the competition by winning it last season, Rovers fans will be more anxious than ever to see their side lift the trophy for the first time in almost 30 years.
Still, Fenlon insists that for him the cup is no more of a priority this year than any other. “Its the same priority as it is every year,” he says. “Every trophy that Rovers play in, people expect us to win it although we haven’t won the FAI Cup for a long time. Everyone keeps telling me about Rovers’ history in it but it’s a long time since we won it.”
There will be a something of a dress rehearsal for the Dublin derby cup tie this Friday when the two teams meet at Richmond in the league with the home side, whose form has been steadily improving, looking to avenge the defeat they suffered on a blustery first night of the campaign out in Tallaght.
Sligo Rovers, meanwhile, already effectively know that competing for this year’s title is not out of the question and so the cup, in which they’ve initially been drawn at home to Leinster Senior League outfit Crumlin United, almost certainly represents their only chance of European football next season.
“Eight points from 33 just isn’t acceptable by our standards,” says Gavin Peers, “but it’s up to su to turn it around aand maybe a run in the cup might help us to do that.
“I don’t know too much about Crumlin,” he continues, “but it’s a home draw and that’s what you’d have been looking for.”
No new dates has been set for the Setanta Sports Cup draw which had been scheduled for Thursday before being indefinitely postponed due, it seems, to problems with a couple of the northern clubs.
Linfield had already announced that they would be again declining their invitation to participate but then on Thursday it was revealed that Glenavon had told organisers they would pull out if drawn away to Cork city because of the proposed date for the game.
“I’ve just heard that the draw has been postponed to a future date but our clubs are committed to playing,” said the FAI’s Fran Gavin at the FAI Cup draw.
“If the competition goes ahead the draw being postponed isn’t that significant,” he said. “We’ve delivered our four clubs to the committee and it’s an issue for the northern clubs to be sorted.”
The commitment of the northern clubs to the competition has been in doubt for quite some time now and the latest difficulties come despite various attempts to reschedule and reformat the event so as to accommodate them all of which has prompted growing speculation about the cup’s future.
FAI Cup second round draw:
Tolka Rovers v Waterford Utd
Dundalk v Shelbourne
Athlone Town v Liffey Wanderers
Cobh Wanderers v Avondale Utd
Edenderry Town v Derry City
Longford Town v Finn Harps
Cockhill Celtic v St Mochtas
Wexford Youths v Cork City
Galway Utd v North End Utd
Killester Utd v Cobh Ramblers
UCD v Sheriff
St Patrick’s Ath v Shamrock Rovers
Bohemians v Firhouse Clover
Sligo Rovers v Crumlin United
Bray Wanderers v Limerick
Drogheda Utd v Cabinteely
All ties to be played on the weekend ending May 31st.
