AIRTRICITY LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION:THE LEAGUE table makes for fairly stark reading for Mick Cooke and his Drogheda United players as they contemplate their visit to Tallaght this evening.
Less than half way through the campaign, the champions have more than 12 times as many points as the top flight’s bottom team and winning the Setanta Cup last weekend is unlikely to have dented the host club’s confidence.
Cooke insists that his players are due a bit of luck having lost out in recent weeks to the likes of Sligo, Derry and Bohemians when they might have nicked something but he concedes readily enough that his young, inexperienced team has generally been outplayed and he is looking now to the July transfer window as a key opportunity to shape United’s second half of the season.
“I’ll be in a position then to bring in three or four players and I think that will be absolutely critical as to how we do over the latter part of the season,” he says. “There’ll be 16 left games to play when the window opens and I think some journalists have written us off a bit too quickly to be honest. Galway are struggling too and I think at least one team will falter over the second half of the season.”
The task now is to get as many points as possible to make the job then a little less formidable but even Cooke has the sound of a man who reckons anything picked up in Tallaght tonight would be something of a bonus. He’s certainly not helped by the fact that he will be missing Alan McNally and Mark Noble due to suspension while Jack Flynn is out injured and Cillian Thompson and Darragh Hanaphy are both doubts. “It’s not ideal,” he admits, “you’d really want everybody out against them because they’re very strong.”
Michael O’Neill is without a couple of players too with Pat Sullivan and Ken Oman both suspended but then he has Gary Twigg, Craig Sives and Chris Turner all hoping to come back which tends to underline the scale of United’s challenge.
Bohemians manager Pat Fenlon is also talking about getting in new players, most likely amateurs, during the window and he’ll be more reliant than usual on the existing youngsters against St Patrick’s Athletic this evening due to the absence of Ger O’Brien (suspended) and Mark Rossiter (hamstring).
However, there is good news in the form of Glenn Cronin’s return after many months with a cruciate ligament injury. The visitors, meanwhile, are still missing Conor Kenna, James O’Brien and Dave Mulcahy but Danny North and Daryl Kavanagh will return after being rested for the midweek Leinster Cup game.
Dundalk manager Ian Foster looks to get his side going again at UCD in the league after the cup final defeat last week but Jason Byrne and Stephen McDonnell both miss out with the knocks they picked up against Rovers. UCD have David O’Connor and Robbie Benson back but Robbie Creevy is still out with an ankle problem.
Derry City boss Stephen Kenny reckons Bray will provide a sterner test for his side than Drogheda or UCD did in recent weeks and the Northerners must take on the students without Kevin Deery and Ruaidhri Higgins (both injured) or Shane McEleney and Daniel Lafferty (both suspended) but Barry Molloy is back after a six week absence. Bray are again without Darren Quigley (arm), Stephen Brennan (thigh) and Gary Shaw (foot) for the trip.
TONIGHT'S FIXTURES
(7.45 unless stated)
Premier Division
Bohemians v St Patrick’s Athletic
(Home: 5/4, Draw: 11/5, Away: 21/10)
Derry City v Bray Wanderers
(Home: 8/15, Draw: 5/2, Away: 6/1)
UCD v Dundalk
(Home: 2/1, Draw: 11/5, Away: 13/10)
Shamrock Rovers v Drogheda Utd (8.0)
(Home: 1/6, Draw: 5/1, Away: 16/1)
First Division
Limerick v Finn Harps
(Home: 30/100, Draw: 7/2, Away: 8/1)
Mervue Utd v Salthill Devon
(Home: 8/15, Draw: 5/2, Away: 5/1)
Shelbourne v Longford Town (8.0)
(Home: 4/7, Draw: 12/5, Away: 5/1)
Wexford Youths v Cork City (8.0)
(Home: 5/1, Draw: 5/2, Away: 8/15)
