Holders hoping to defend trophy

SETANTA SPORTS CUP:WITH THE sponsors having recently survived a brush with extinction themselves, the fact that Cork City was the only name on the board as yesterday's draw for this season's Setanta Sports Cup got under way at Abbotstown didn't necessarily inspire an enormous amount of confidence.

Setanta’s Niall Cogley, indeed, acknowledged there had been times in recent weeks that he hadn’t expected to be launching the event again but, he said, in relation to the company’s recent and City’s current problems, “We’ve shown that if you stick together in difficult times then you always have a chance.”

The holders were represented yesterday by Paul Doolin who guided Drogheda United to success in this competition in successive seasons a couple of years back. City’s ambitions this year will initially be limited to simply participating but the Dubliner expressed some satisfaction with the draw handed to the southerners, “if, that is,” he said, “we actually get to play”.

If they don’t, it remains uncertain who will take their place and nobody from the competition’s organising committee, certainly not its chairman Milo Corcoran, seemed to be in a position to offer any enlightenment yesterday.

Bray Wanderers have been seen as likely candidates on the basis they were next best placed side in the League of Ireland after Cork last season but then the troubled Turner’s Cross outfit qualified as tournament winners rather than through their finish in the championship and it is easy to imagine the broadcasters might prefer if a justification were to be found for offering a place to Shamrock Rovers who are currently second in the Premier Division.

As things stand at present, though, Cork find themselves in a group with Cliftonville and debutants Sligo Rovers which will require a lot of travelling but, if things were to remain as they are now, a decent chance of qualification for the semi-finals.

“The bottom line is that no matter who we draw we are going to have to travel a lot,” said Doolin, “and we’ll certainly know all about Sligo after playing them three times in the league so far and twice in the cup. As for Cliftonville, I was up there last year with Drogheda but we didn’t get to play at Solitude because there was work going on at the ground so from a personal point of view it would be nice to play up there.”

Derry City and Linfield were drawn together again; their previous meetings have generated high levels of interest. St Patrick’s Athletic complete that three-team group while Bohemians, Glentoran and Coleraine will compete in Group Two. The three group winners along with the best of the three runners-up progress to the semi-finals.

The Draw

Group One: Cork City, Cliftonville and Sligo Rovers; Group Two: Bohemians, Glentoran and Coleraine; Group Three: Linfield, Derry City and St Patrick's Athletic.

Preliminary schedule: August 28th/29th: Cork City v Cliftonville, Glentoran v Bohemians and St Patrick's Athletic v Linfield. September 18th/19th/21st: Sligo Rovers v Cork City, Coleraine v Glentoran and Derry City v St Patrick's Athletic. October 2nd/3rd/5th/6th: Cliftonville v Sligo Rovers, Bohemians v Coleraine and Linfield v Derry City. November 2nd/3rd: Glentoran v Coleraine; November 9th/10th: Cork City v Sligo Rovers; St Patrick's Athletic v Derry City. February 26th/27th: Sligo Rovers v Cliftonville, Coleraine v Bohemians, Derry City v Linfield. March 13th: Cliftonville v Cork City, Bohemians v Glentoran and Linfield v St Patrick's Athletic; March 29th and April 17th: Semi-finals; May 15th: Final.