FAI CUP FINAL:Shamrock Rovers v Sligo Rovers

IF THERE’S a slight concern about the fact that tomorrow’s Ford-sponsored FAI Cup final looks set to attract a crowd of 25,000 or more, it’s based on the fact that, in fairly recent times, big crowds and entertaining games are not things that have chanced upon each other too often where League of Ireland clubs have been concerned.

Over the course of the past few months Shamrock and Sligo Rovers have provided grounds for optimism that this encounter will buck the trend and the occasion is certainly added to by how well matched the two teams appear to be with Sligo unlikely to be daunted at all by the prospect of taking on the newly-crowned league champions, given the strength of their own form over the last few months.

Paul Cook’s Sligo side will, of course, be weakened by the ludicrous suspensions of Richie Ryan and Matthew Blinkhorn, both of whom will watch the game from the stands due to an accumulation of yellow cards that was completed more than a month ago.

Even without PFAI player of the Year, Ryan, in midfield, though, it’s still possible to argue that Sligo will be stronger in that department, while Blinkhorn’s most likely deputy, Eoin Doyle, is a capable young player who won’t be short of motivation against his former club.

At least Cook has been sure over the last few days of who he will be asking to lead the attack at the Aviva Stadium; Shamrock Rovers manager Michael O’Neill admitted this week the league’s top scorer, Gary Twigg, had not trained since limping out of the 2-2 draw in Bray a couple of weeks back and the striker still faces the prospect of a late fitness test tomorrow before a final call is made on whether he can start.

The outcome may play a significant part in shaping the manager’s approach to the game for O’Neill has regularly opted to play five across the centre, often with Stephen Rice operating in a deep role between the defence and midfield, for bigger games but it seems a little less likely he would take that route in the event Twigg wasn’t available – or quite fit enough – to play up front by himself.

The expectation, though, is Sligo will start that way with Danny Ventre coming in for Ryan alongside Joseph Ndo and John Russell allowed a fair bit of leeway to roam forward in support of Doyle. If that is indeed the approach Cook opts for then O’Neill may simply have to match the opposition in what is going to be a fairly crowded central area for fear his side might be swamped in much the way the Republic of Ireland were by Russia at the same venue a month ago.

More important, perhaps, from O’Neill’s point of view, will be the question of whether those players he selects to play in midfield – and he has a few strong options – perform at the level required over the 90 minutes for when things started to go awry during the title run-in it often seemed to be the defensive side of things in that department that started to go first.

The manager has argued himself that his own side’s cup semi-final win over St Patrick’s Athletic played an important part in bolstering his players’ resolve for the final stage of the championship contest while Bohemians’ defeat by Sligo probably helped to undermine that of their rivals.

Following that logic, it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that if the draw had worked out differently and Cook’s men played at Tallaght the way they did at Dalymount Park, at a time when O’Neill’s men were faltering, that not only might the line-up for tomorrow’s final be different but so might the identity of the league champions.

Sligo certainly played some wonderful football as they won 1-0 that weekend but O’Neill feels their performance over the course of the season as a whole may have been somewhat over-hyped.

“People have opinions, at time inflated. I think we have played all season under quite a bit more pressure than Sligo. But in many people’s eyes, they will be favourites and maybe they deserve that tag.

“Still, if all they had to show for season was EA Sports Cup, maybe there would be sense of disappointment in their group. Equally, we don’t want to finish without the cup either. We both want to win and so we’ll have to deal with them and they’ll have to deal with us.”

Sure enough, the Dubliners are actually slight favourites to complete their double but just as the match might well prove to be, it is a fairly close run thing and the reality is that after last year’s heartbreak at this stage of the competition, Sligo have some basis for believing if they can produce their best for the full 90 minutes this year, a victory for them wouldn’t be all that much of a surprise at all.