United to field strongest side for Cup

GALWAY United manager Sean Connor will name his strongest possible starting XI for tonight’s FAI Cup third round clash with Malahide United in Terryland Park (kick-off 7.45pm) in a bid to avoid an early exit from the cup for the second successive year.

Ian Foster was in charge last season when United hosted Longford Town in the Fourth Round of the competition, and the struggling First Division side caused the shock of the round when scoring the only goal of the game to advance, despite playing three quarters of the game with just 10 men.

“We have a league game against Bohemians on Tuesday night, but I will be playing my strongest possible side for the Cup game. It will be easy to motivate the players for the Bohs game, so by picking a strong side for the cup match, they will know how serious I am treating the game,” Connor told Tribune Sport yesterday.

United should comfortably see off the challenge of the Dublin side, but the same was expected of Sligo Rovers and Bohemians in the 2005 and 2007 Cup respectively, and it didn’t turn out like that, Sligo needing a replay to advance after a 1-1 draw in the first game in the Showgrounds; while Bohs required a late Glen Crowe strike to advance two years later.

Ironically, this will be Connor’s third time to face Malahide in the Cup as he was the Sligo manager in 2005 and the Bohs boss in 2007, so it is little surprise he won’t be resting players by choice, although he will be without a couple of key players for the game.

Karl Sheppard returns after being part of the Irish squad that lost out narrowly to England in the Elite U19 European qualifying mini-tournament in Ukraine last week, but he will be fully focussed on putting one over his former local rivals tonight.

Sheppard grew up playing schoolboy football for Portmarnock, whose closest neighbours – and rivals – were Malahide United, and while he says he doesn’t know many of the players involved with the Dublin club this season, he is hoping to get one over on old foes.

“Hopefully we get a big crowd for the two games as we have had players on trial, and I want to bring in three when the window opens, but we need to find the money to do that. The friendly with Liverpool in August will help, but we need two big gates this week,” said Sean Connor

United confirmed this week that a Liverpool XI will travel to Terryland Park on Monday August 9 for a friendly as part of a two-date Irish tour – they English side will also play Dungannon Swifts.