Pembroke Wanderers may now be assertive enough to beat their all-embracing challengers, Glenanne, for the first time this season when they meet in the quarter-final of the Cable & Wireless Leinster Senior Cup at Serpentine Avenue tomorrow.
Having experienced his side's losses to Glenanne in the Top Four semi-final, the Statoil League away game and the Neville Cup final, Pembroke coach Simon Figas seemed to have found the best blend in last weekend's 3-1 defeat of Railway Union in the Irish Senior Cup.
With Paudie Carley in front of the back three and Devin Donnelly flanked by Trevor Dunne and Allan Kershaw in midfield, the momentum was coming through constantly for the front runners to flourish.
Glenanne, with Alan Browne and Rory O'Donoghue to the fore, can close a team down relentlessly while Graham Shaw will forage for the openings from which Stephen Butler may well add to his set-piece tally. However, if the Pembroke strikers can break loose from their markers, at least one trophy can still stay in Ballsbridge.
Ultimately, no great threat is likely to come from the other contestants. Railway Union are set to reach the semi-finals, at the expense of minnows Weston, to be joined perhaps by Three Rock Rovers if they muster a full-strength line-up against Corinthians. The Monkstown-YMCA tie has been called off because of a YM registration blip.
International coach Gavin Featherstone will be giving his views at a Leinster clinic in the Mount Herbert Hotel, Dublin, next Tuesday night (7.30).
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