DUO ARE REBOUND TO SHOW RECOVERY; Cup rivals aiming to bounce back.Byline: MARTIN MAWHINNEY TWO teams have a score to settle in the Irish Cup The Irish Cup is the national cup knock-out competition in Northern Irish football. Inaugurated in 1881, it is the fourth oldest national cup competition in the world. Prior to the break-away from the Irish Football Association by clubs from what would become the Irish Free State battle between Dromara Village and Dollingstown this Saturday - but only one can emerge victorious in the end. Both clubs had good reason to be licking Licking, river, c.320 mi (515 km) long, rising in E Ky. and flowing NW to the Ohio River opposite Cincinnati; the North and South Forks are its chief tributaries. their wounds in the weekend just past, with the Amateur League outfit losing to a team which had previously been in dire need of a change in fortunes, and their Mid-Ulster opposition throwing a perfectly good lead away towards the end of their most recent game. With only seconds to go against Championship side Lurgan Celtic, it looked as if Dollingstown had done enough to secure a famous victory over the Hoops - but the late equaliser they conceded gave Celtic the opportunity to wrap the game up outside normal time. Manager Gary Duke will be hoping to ensure that his troops do not let history repeat itself should they find themselves in an equally promising scenario on Saturday. He said: "I would say in their eyes, we will be going into the game as underdogs, and that suits us just fine. They will have been left a bit bruised bruise v. bruised, bruis·ing, bruis·es v.tr. 1. a. To injure the underlying soft tissue or bone of (part of the body) without breaking the skin, as by a blow. b. from what happened to them on Saturday, but so have we. "We lost 3-1 to Larne in the Irish Cup last year, but we had been leading the game 1-0. We didn't let ourselves down, and I don't expect that we will do so on Saturday, either." This could be a close match to call, with Dollingstown in possession of one of the most impeccable records in Mid-Ulster football. Incredibly, they have not lost a league game since their defeat by Intermediate A leaders Warrenpoint Town on the opening day of last season. So, in many senses, the game will present an interesting yard-stick by which to measure the standard of the Daily Mirror Amateur and Mid-Ulster Leagues. And, as should be the case in such circumstances, Duke is remaining balanced in his outlook, and is predicting a tight encounter. He added: "I know they have experience with boys like Lee Feeney and John Douglas John Douglas is a name shared by a number of notable individuals:
"But we're confident in our own abilities, and we think we'll be able to give them a good game." Dromara manager Phil McDonagh has managed to remain philosophical in the face of Saturday's 3-2 defeat away to Newington YC. The result came hot on the heels of three successive defeats for the recently-stuttering champions, to give Eamonn McC arthy's men an important boost for the weeks and months ahead. McDonagh shrugged: "It was always going to come, wasn't it? I was speaking to a Newington committee member during the week, and he said that they had been playing really well. "Newington are a confident bunch of lads, and they probably think they are still capable of winning the league from their current position. "That might have been different if they had lost on Saturday, so they approached it like it was a cup final - they were really up for it." It is tempting to say that Dollingstown may never get as good an opportunity to defeat a Dromara Village side, with the Premier Section outfit missing three of their first-choice backline backline the upper outline of the body's silhouette viewed from the side. of four. Captain James McDonagh - the manager's brother - will be out for the next four weeks, due to a hamstring injury hamstring injury Sports medicine A muscle injury of biceps femoris, seen in sprinters and runners, when a contracted muscle meets a lengthening force, overpowering intrinsic muscle resiliency Management RICE, NSAIDs, gradual ↑ of pain-free activity–eg, , Marcus O'Gorman's ligament ligament (lĭg`əmənt), strong band of white fibrous connective tissue that joins bones to other bones or to cartilage in the joint areas. The bundles of collagenous fibers that form ligaments tend to be pliable but not elastic. damage will keep him out for a similar period, while Mark Drake's fractured elbow is likely to rule him out for anything up to 12 weeks. Phil McDonagh has always had faith in his team to get a result against anybody if they perform to their true capabilities, and it's the same idea on Saturday. However, he has reiterated that it won't be the end of the world if their Irish Cup aspirations end up in tatters tat·ter 1 n. 1. A torn and hanging piece of cloth; a shred. 2. tatters Torn and ragged clothing; rags. tr. & intr.v. by the final whistle against Dollingstown. He said: "I wouldn't be entirely disappointed (if we went out of the competition on Saturday), because our main aim this season was always to win a bit of silverware, and to stay in the league. "We have the quarter-finals of the Border Cup still to come, as well as the Clarence Cup in the second part of the season, so they are still realistic targets for us." Whether or not the Irish Cup goes from being an unrealistic target to an impossible mission will depend on who has put their woes from last weekend to bed, with a result this Saturday. CAPTION(S): HERE'S JONNY Dollingstown's Simon Davidson can't get in front of Lurgan Celtic player Jonny Reynolds. PLENTY TO PONDER Dollingstown manager, Gary Duke |
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