While batteries are being charged for the Cable & Wireless-powered Leinster Senior Cup semi-finals at Grange Road on Sunday, it is a trifle disorientating that there are no premier division league fixtures in Dublin tomorrow.
The afternoon will feel all the more blank following the startling result on Wednesday night when Avoca, with David Hanna to the fore, poached a last-minute draw with Glenanne. So, with three series of matches remaining, Glenanne are left with only a three-point lead over the defending champions, Pembroke Wanderers.
The top pair both face two testing games - Glenanne meet Three Rovers (away) and Railway Union (home) while Pembroke visit YMCA and Monkstown - before they clash in the shrewdly arranged final fixture at Serpentine Avenue on March 18th. A likely scenario is that Glenanne will hold their nerve sufficiently to stay in front until then but that peak-form Pembroke will keep on winning, including the closing clash, thus necessitating a play-off. Pembroke, back on the path to repeating the championship and cup double, probably will have the rhythm to edge out Corinthians in Sunday's semi-final, for they have moved into gear in comparison to the league game at the end of November when they suffered a 2-1 defeat to Corinthians at Whitechurch Park. Similarly, the tide has turned in an amazing surge by Monkstown since they lost 4-0 at home to Railway Union who, though, will want to salvage something from a campaign that seemed promising at the start of the season.
All four clubs have announced full-strength squads, apart from one notable Corinthians absentee, Peter Darley, who is goalkeeping coach with the Irish women's team in San Diego.
Meanwhile Avoca carry on with their indoor activity, following up their involvement at European level in vibrant Holland with participation in a Glasgow tournament this weekend in which the late Joe Dillon will be especially remembered. He propagated the game on the boards enormously. In their pool, the Dubliners will be taking on Bohemians Prague, Edinburgh Wanderers and the crack German side, Ander Alster.
