Bohemians and Galway got the home ties that everybody was hoping for when the draw for the Harp Lager FAI Cup semi-finals was made in Dublin last night. However, there were no complaints from the managers who'll be travelling, with Shelbourne's Dermot Keely and Bray's Pat Devlin both well used to hitting the road for cup outings.
What wasn't decided last night was when the games will be played. Both home clubs want to play on Friday night, but because RTE are covering both games live only one can, with the other game set for a Sunday afternoon kick-off. The expectation is that the matter will be resolved tomorrow evening, but how exactly it will be done remains somewhat unclear.
RTE has a good deal of influence over the order of the games, but neither club is likely to cave in easily given the difference in gate receipts that might be expected between a Friday and Sunday. The possibility remains that a tossed coin will end up resolving the issue.
For the moment, though, Galway's manager Don O'Riordan looks to have most to be happy about and last night he admitted to being delighted with the way things had worked out.
"We've had three great matches with Shelbourne this season, all of them draws, and it has the makings of a cracking night in Terryland," he said. We both made it to this stage last year and then missed out and obviously somebody's going to be disappointed again this time, but you've got to be optimistic, you've got to go out there hoping that your name is on the cup.
"If the bookies are to be believed," he added, "then Shelbourne have got the easiest draw, but we've done things the hard way so far and we don't mind having to do it again."
Keely conceded that given the buzz that the game would create around Galway, United's home draw might well be a bit of a boost for the competition. "They'll probably have a full house and there'll be a great atmosphere, so it's probably good for football. To be honest it doesn't make too much difference to us, we would have liked to have been at home, but now we'll just get on with it."
Like Shelbourne, Bray have done their share of travelling to get this far, so Devlin wasn't exactly phased by being second out of the hat once more, but neither was he overly concerned.
"It would have been nice for our supporters, but then Dalymount's a nice day trip for everyone and it's a good pitch and great surroundings in which to play the game, so it'll give everybody a bit of a lift.
"And we'd love to put Bohemians out, make no mistake about that. We've got nothing to lose, they've got everything, and we've made a bit of a habit over the past couple of years of doing well out of being the underdogs."
Bohemians manager Roddy Collins was happy, too, but is cautious about his side's prospects. "It's a home draw and that's good, but it's a tough one too," he remarked afterwards. "They're a good cup side who are doing as well as they can do in their league campaign, so it's not going to be easy. At the moment our priority is still to get enough points in the league to qualify for Europe . . . it'd be nice to get to a final, though."
Republic of Ireland under-18 international Shaun Byrne will miss both of the Republic's European Championship play-off games against France next month after undergoing surgery on a cartilage injury last Friday.
The versatile West Ham midfielder, who had a spell on loan with Bristol Rovers earlier in the season, picked up the injury in a recent youths match against Reading and looks likely to be sidelined for up to eight weeks. He should, however, be available to Brian Kerr for the UEFA finals in Germany if Ireland beat the French over two legs.
