Tony Cousins: Dundalk was ‘draw everyone wanted to avoid’

Longford Town manager Tony Cousins has admitted that having to head to Oriel Park in the FAI Cup semi-finals is "probably the draw that everyone wanted to avoid," but, he says, "we go there to win, we won't be afraid of them.

Longford lost narrowly away to the champions over the opening weekend of the season but took a point away with them on their most recent visit and Cousins is confident that his side can test Stephen Kenny’s men again.

“Look, we’ve given them a game each time we’ve gone there this season and we won’t fear them this time,” says Cousins. “It’ll probably take us being at our very best and theem having an off day but we’ll go there to win. Last time we were reduced to 10 men and still hung on for the draw so we’ll have a look at that again closer to the time and see how we can improve on it.

"We've got a lot of big games to concentrate on between now and then though," he continued. "Bohemians on Friday is massive for us because if can go to Dundalk knowing that we're going to be in the Premier Division next year and trying for a place in the cup final then it will already have been a great season for us."

Monday morning's draw, however, keeps alive the possibility of the top two in the league playing each other in the final. The last time that happened was in 1987 when Shamrock Rovers completed the double by beating Dundalk who are still on course to win both competitions in the one season for the third time in their history.

The games will take place on Sunday, October 4th.