By Gerard Mulreaney (@gerardmulreaney)
It’s a massive night in the SSE Airtricity League as Drogheda United and Cabinteely do battle in the race for promotion to the Premier Division.
With the tie delicately balanced at 1-1 following the first leg last weekend, it’s all to play for in United Park tonight.
It’s a big night for supporters of both clubs, with a large crowd expected to attend.
Drogheda manager Tim Clancy is hoping the locals turn out in big numbers, “The more fans that come along the better. I’ve been saying it for the last two years, the lads deserve to have more people coming in watching them. They play good football and they are an exciting young team.
“The more that can come in and support us, and if they can create the same atmosphere as the Shelbourne game it’d be excellent.”
On the challenge that’s facing his side Clancy added, “They’ve (Cabinteely) been very good away from home. We know it’s not going to easy and it’ll be a difficult game but I’ve been saying that all along. We’re not going to approach the game any different than we would anyway.
For Cabinteely, manager Pat Devlin has intimated that there are issues at the club. While he didn’t want to go into specific details he did say, ”It’s been one of the toughest weeks I’ve ever had in football. It’s going to be a tough game, it’s 50/50 again. It should be a good crowd, a good atmosphere.
“Everything’s been great, but the last couple of weeks there’s been someone up there with a little pin and he has a doll. I don’t know whether it’s me or whether it’s the club, but a few little things – we’ve a few injuries, which is not what we want going into a game like this.
“We’ve a couple of other little issues going on within the club which I’m not really happy about, but it is what it is and we have to get in with it.
“If we’re going to get knocked out, one of my ex clubs Drogheda, why not. If they can go on and do better than us in the Premier Division then even better again. But we won’t be giving it up without a shout. We will do our utmost to win the game, make no mistake about that.
The winner will move on to face Finn Harps in the Promotion Playoff final, with the first leg to be played on Monday night.