League Cup draw divided by region

LEAGUE officers yesterday confirmed their intention to arrange the quarter- finals of the eircom League Cup competition on a regional basis.

The quarter-final arrangements will be made on Tuesday and there will be four Premier and four First Division teams in the draw.

The officers intend, however, to pair Cork City with Limerick City in one of the quarter-finals and Sligo Rovers and Finn Harps in another. A draw will decide who has home advantage.

The other four teams will go into a regular draw Premier Division clubs Longford Town, Bohemians and Dublin City and First Division UCD.

Longford will put their unbeaten away record on the line when they play Cork City at Turner's Cross tonight (7.45pm). The fixture list has been shortened by the involvement of a League selection in the semi-professional tournament in Scotland, an event to be held in Cork next year.

Longford have several regulars ruled out because of injury and manager Alan Mathews suggested that, as a result, they were ripe for the picking by Cork. Missing will be Brian McGovern, Stephen Paisley, Graham Gartland and Brian Byrne.

"Three of those lads are defenders and we know how tough Cork can be from our game with them at Flancare Park this season," he said.

"Cork did not play to their best that night but they still gave us plenty of problems."

Longford had to come from behind to draw that match but a feature of their play this season has been the strength of their defence, even though McGovern and Paisley, an Irish underage international, have been injured for most of the season.

Mathews conceded how well his defence has been playing.

"They have been brilliant, I've been delighted with the way the players have swapped around positions to fill the gaps. But I wish we were at full-strength going to Cork."

Longford's main problem this season has been a shortage of goals. Their last two eircom League matches against Dublin City and Bohemians finished scoreless but they scored four last week in the League Cup against Athlone and beat Kildare County 2-1 in the same competition.

Shane Barrett was the man who shone for them in their FAI Cup final win over St Pat's and he is due a return to form. He is likely to be partnered by Sean Francis up front.

Cork City's failure to beat Shamrock Rovers last week was down to their difficulties in capitalising on their scoring chances. It was tempting to believe they would have outscored Rovers had John O'Flynn been able to play more regularly this season.

However, O'Flynn is working his way back to full fitness and with Kevin Doyle ruled out by a hamstring injury, Cork will turn to him for leadership.

Cork played some captivating football against Rovers and left the fans hungry for more.

Typical of their performance was that of their Nigerian winger Michael Nwankwo, who effected two daring thrusts at the Rovers' defence in the opening 10 minutes and then faded from the game.

Nwankwo's skill on the ball could be a huge asset to Cork and the task for manager Pat Dolan is to ensure he and his colleagues persist with their constructive passing game.

It makes for much more attractive football when it is produced.

Shamrock Rovers will go second in the table if they beat Derry City tonight.

They will be bidding for a seventh straight League match without defeat.

Manager Liam Buckley said they were now in a challenging position on merit.

"Our defence has kept three clean sheets in our unbeaten run and we have scored 12 goals, so that shows how well-balanced the team is."

Rovers will have to plan without left-back Stephen Gough against Derry because he is suffering from a hamstring strain. He was troubled at full-back by Cork's Billy Woods but influenced the game much more in the second-half when he moved to midfield.

Derry City manager Gavin Dykes revealed he was on the verge of quitting when his side lost to Monaghan United in the League Cup.

He asked the players to prove they wanted him to stay and was encouraged by their performance against Shelbourne.

Derry will be without their lively striker Gary Beckett against Rovers as he is recovering from an ankle injury. They will do well to hold a confident Rovers at Richmond Park.