Cook wary of Monaghan backlash but Sligo the cup fancies

PREMIER DIVISION status, home advantage and the fact that they put three past the same opposition in the FAI Ford Cup last week, all make Sligo Rovers the hot favourites to lift the EA Sports Cup when they play Monaghan United at The Showgrounds this afternoon (kick-off 5.30pm, live on Setanta Sports).

However, despite that cup exit, promotion-chasing Monaghan are having a season to remember and Sligo won’t be taking the challenge lightly.

Says manager Paul Cook: “There all different sorts of criteria for finals. It is on the day. I think Monaghan will respect the fact that we beat them last Saturday and beat them quite convincingly. But by the same yardstick, it is a completely different game now.”

Nor is Cook prepared to hail Sligo’s own fine season a success, even though they are in the last four of the FAI Cup and can get one half of a cup double completed today.

“We’ve been playing consistently well for a long period but at the end of the season we all say the same things,” he notes. “The league table will not lie and then two trophies will be handed out. We’ve got a chance to put our hands on both. If you look back we’ve won the League Cup once.

“To win the League Cup another time puts some more silverware in the cabinet. It goes towards the history of the club and today we have an opportunity. If we all play our part then we can get that success we need.”

But Monaghan have their eyes set on making history too, as their manager Mick Cooke emphasises.

“It’s our first cup final in our 25th year in football,” he says.

“Reaching these levels is a huge achievement for the club. We have no fears coming here as on the way we have beaten Premier League teams, Bohemians and Dundalk. I believe that it will be a totally type of game to last weekend’s meeting between the sides in the FAI/ Ford Cup and I came away from that game believing that we can get the desired result.”