Competitive football returns to Oriel Park tonight as Dundalk FC take on Coleraine in the first leg of the Setanta Cup quarter-finals.
Stephen Kenny has retained much of the side that clinched second place in the league last season, while also adding the likes of David McMillan, Ruaidhri Higgins, Daryl Horgan, Marc Griffin and Sean Gannon to the side.
This will be Dundalk’s first time competing in the Setanta Cup since losing the 2011 final to Shamrock Rovers and it will be only the second time that they have met Coleraine, with the Northern side winning 1-0 in the old Blaxnit Cup in 1970.
For the match itself, Dundalk will be without the services of centre-half Brian Gartland as he recovers from an ankle knock he picked up in training while Keith Ward is continuing his rehabilitation from a cruciate ligament injury he picked up last season. New signing Sean Gannon, who went off with a hamstring injury in the Leinster Senior Cup defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic last week, is more than likely going to miss out but in better news, Andy Boyle and Chris Shields are both in line to return following injury however they’ll run late fitness tests before the match. All in all, it’s unlikely that there will be any major changes from the side which lined out in the Leinster Senior Cup last week.
Last season, Coleraine were the only team to beat Shamrock Rovers when they won the away leg of their first round tie and they’ll head to Oriel Park full of confidence as they are currently on a run of only two defeats in their last ten games.
Kick-off at Oriel Park is at 7.45pm
Talk of the Town 