Rovers retain hope

IF IT wasn’t for Shamrock Rovers, Drogheda United might, with all due respect to Sligo and their impending title success, be the story of the year with Mick Cooke’s side making a mockery of the correlation between pay and league position while giving their fans a couple of cup runs.

This afternoon, they get a crack at the EA Sports final (kick-off 5.45pm) but Cooke and his players might find themselves a little put out afterwards regardless of the result for the talk amongst neutrals when the whistle sounds is likely to focus on whether Rovers have achieved some small measure of redemption or not.

“It’s been a difficult time but in this game you’re always lucky in that you always have a chance to put it right; hopefully we can start doing that this Saturday,” says Rovers winger Billy Dennehy who sees a win today as potentially paving the way to a late-season charge in the league.

“Stephen Kenny’s a good man,” he says, “and everybody started with the intention of doing well; we were going for three in a row and that was a big incentive. We knew we had the players to do it but it didn’t happen and we’re lucky Brian Laws has come in and we still have the chance to qualify for Europe through the league and win a cup as well.”

Dennehy admits they need to show more resilience. “We’ve had Derry at home when we were 1-0 up, UCD when we were 2-0 up, Cork when we were 1-0 up and they all scored late goals.”

This afternoon’s game represents the club’s last shot at silverware this season but Laws has to choose his first Rovers team without Ken Oman or Pat Sullivan (both suspended) or the injured Graham Gartland. Colin Hawkins, Craig Sives and Conor McCormack all face late fitness tests.

Drogheda again have Michael Schlingerman, Michael Marks and John Sullivan cup tied.