Southern teams look for cup upsets

Between them the Glenanne and Belvedere captains, Catherine Kennedy and Anne Murray, have given almost 30 years' service to their respective clubs, but few matches in their careers have generated as much excitement and anticipation as their Sharwoods' Irish Senior Cup quarter-final clashes tomorrow against the top two teams in Ulster.

"Normally we're sitting back looking at these cup fixtures, so it's fantastic to be actually playing in them. There's a great buzz about the place, we're really looking forward to it," said Kennedy of Glenanne's meeting in Tallaght with Randalstown, the Ulster league champions and conquerors of cup-holders Hermes in the last round.

Cork's Belvedere face, perhaps, the most unenviable task of the weekend - a 12-hour round trip by bus to Lisburn, where they will play Pegasus, the team that has won three Irish Senior Cups in the last six years.

The Ulster sides are strong favourites in both matches, but Glenanne, under the guidance of coach Eddie O'Malley, have had an impressive season so far and have earned the reputation of being a difficult side to beat.

"On paper, Randalstown would certainly be the favourites - they have the experience of playing in this competition and at this stage - but we're not going out with damage limitation in mind or a baton-down-the-hatches job," insists Kennedy. "If we can hold them, particularly at short corners, which is their forte, we'll try to get out ourselves and play the way we have been playing recently, then you never know. Look at Collegians beating Muckross, look at Stevenage in the FA Cup! Hopefully, we'll give them a good run for their money and do ourselves justice."

Kennedy, who won the first of eight senior caps in 1988, will be reacquainting herself tomorrow with her former Irish international colleague Jackie McWilliams, who inspired Randalstown to their 2-1 victory over Hermes at Belfield last month.

Meanwhile in Lisburn, Belvedere will come up against a Pegasus team which, Anne Murray concedes, resembles an "Irish Select." You'll be up against Jeanette Turner in midfield? "Oh God. Great," says the nervous captain.

The odds on a young and inexperienced Belvedere side troubling Pegasus are, Murray concedes, slim. "They played Catholic Institute in the first round and beat them 80 . . . we played Institute last week and only beat them 1-0, so we know what we're up against. We'll just give it a go and go out play hockey anyway, we're not going to play defensively. We just want to enjoy the match and the experience - hopefully it will be tight enough and not a walkover."

Tomorrow's other two quarterfinals - Loreto v Old Alexandra and Collegians v UCC - should be more balanced affairs. Loreto rate the injured Mary Barnwell's hopes of playing as no better than 50-50, but Alex hope to have their leading scorer, Trish Conway, back in action after missing their last two matches with damaged tendons in her shoulder.

Like their Munster rivals Belvedere, UCC face a marathon trip north to play Collegians, the team which beat Muckross in the second round. The students go in to the match buoyed by their league form, which has given them a four-point lead at the top of the table, and their 2-1 win over Portadown in the last round of the cup, when they were also required to make the long journey north.