A review of the weekend's matches

Waterford Utd v Carrigaline Utd

LIKE most of the other non-league sides, Carrigaline are somewhat out of season at this stage and manager Canice Kennedy is under no illusions about what that’s likely to mean when the team travels to Waterford for this evening’s game. “Our season ended four weeks ago so we’re at a severe disadvantage in terms of fitness,” he says. “But we’ll enjoy it, it’ll be a good day out; we wouldn’t really have any aspiration about going any further in the competition.”

The First Division outfit have lost their last two games in the league and will look to get back on track with a convincing win here. Manager Stephen Henderson has a full squad to choose from, while the visitors are without wither of their senior squad goalkeepers, leaving Kennedy to call up a replacement from either the club’s junior team or one of their underage sides.

Shamrock Rovers v Drogheda Utd

THE long time kings of the cup embark on their latest attempt to win the competition for a 25th time at their new home and in front of what should be another sell out crowd.

Michael O’Neill has close to a full squad to choose from with just Seán Wall (back) ruled out and the manager will be looking for an improvement on the 1-1 draw his side managed when the two sides met in the league at the end of last month.

United, though, have been growing in confidence and Alan Mathews might feel his side can spring a surprise. They’ll have to do it without Robbie Farrell or Steve Williams, though, while Alan McNally, Shane Barrett and Robbie Martin are all doubts. “It’s a good break from the league for us,” says Mathews, “and if we can maintain our recent improvement anything might happen.”

Finn Harps v Galway Utd

THEIR respective standings in the league might suggest an away win here but the only thing we can be relatively confident about is there should be goals as there has been just one scoreless draw in 45 meetings between the sides to date.

United travel with a full squad but the locals have a few problems. Goalkeeper Ciarán Gallagher is back from international duty but Conor Gethins (shoulder) is out, Ian Rossiter and Marc Mukendi are expected to be missing too and Johnny Havlin, Seán Houston and Paddy Bonner are all reckoned to be doubtful.

“It’s going to be a tough game and we’ll need a repeat of the performance we had against Mervue,” says manager James Gallagher. “If we were to go into the game short of confidence, they have individual players who could do us a lot of damage but we’ll give Galway a decent game.”

Cherry Orchard v Monaghan Utd

THE Dubliners have actually beaten Monaghan in this competition before and were it not for the timing of the game they might well fancy themselves to repeat the trick tomorrow afternoon.

While Monaghan come into the game off the back of a narrow defeat by leaders UCD, however, Orchard are out of season, which makes this something more of a mountain to climb.

With Stephen Barry having resigned and his replacement, Graham Doyle, not yet in place it falls to second team manager Joe Kane to take charge for the day.

Robbie Shiels is unavailable but the rest of the squad have kept ticking over ahead of the game.

“We’re not far off their level,” says Kane, “but they’ll have a big edge in terms of fitness. Still, we’ll be up for it and we have nothing at all to lose.”

Tralee Dynamos v Salthill Devon

THE two A League sides meet for what appears to be the first time this evening with the Kerry club rated favourites by virtue of their home advantage.

Tralee, though, have Jonathan Burrows and Edward Duggan suspended and manager Jason Fitzgerald is wary. “We’ve been keeping an eye on them and they play some nice football,” he says. “They have a couple of nippy wingers and a good striker so it’ll be tough but there’s a real buzz around the town about the game and we’re all looking forward to it.

Rob Porter and Ryan O’Donnell are expected to miss out for the visitors but manager Emlyn Long is hopeful: “We were in Castlebar, then Derry and now Tralee so we’re certainly getting about but it’s great t be involved at this stage of the competition and good for our league that one of us will be in the next round.”

Wexford Youths v Longford Town

THE home side have, says manager Mick Wallace, come a considerable way in the last year with the experience gained from their initial exposure to the rough and tumble of life in the First Division beginning to pay dividends.

“We’re a lot better now than we were,” he says, “and you can see the difference it makes in terms of the league table. We’ve been playing well lately too and we’d be optimistic going into this game, even though Gareth Cronin will clearly make Longford very hard to beat.”

Cronin only took over at Flancare Park earlier this week and may still be getting to know some of his squad members on the bus to Ferrycarrig. The corresponding league game finished 2-1 to the hosts and Wallace will be looking for something similar before his side’s next league game, also against Longford.

Kildare County v Athlone Town

THERE has been a fair bit of activity down at Station Road in recent weeks, with a handful of players brought in and given debuts by the first division strugglers.

Joey Somerville is without some of his new recruits for this game, though, as Philip Hughes, Christy Doran and Darren O’Brien are all ineligible.

Athlone haven’t been in the best of form themselves over the last few weeks with just four points from their last seven league games and Brendan Place, who released second top scorer Emeka Onwubiko after last week’s defeat by Limerick, is without a few bodies.

Anthony Hayes (cruciate) and Kevin Williamson (suspension) are out, while Stephen Place (groin) and Kevin Dunne (leaving cert) are reckoned to be very doubtful and Gary Murphy is ineligible.