Town to face an old friend in ea sports league cup
ATHLONE Town and former manager Keith Long will meet for the first time since the former Athlone manager left the club in a pre-season fixture this Sunday. But they will also face each other in a more competitive surrounding in the coming weeks, having been drawn together in the first round of EA Sports League Cup.
Bohemians will have home advantage in the League Cup clash, which will be played on Monday, March 9 at Dalymount Park.
Long took over as Athlone manager after the first ten games in last season’s Premier Division, finding an Athlone side with no points from the opening ten outings. In the end, Athlone fought bravely against the threat of relegation but went down on the final day of the season. Since Long departed for Dalymount Park, former Town players Kaelan Dillon, Dylan Hayes, James O’Brien and Derek Prendergast have followed him to the Dublin club.
The draw for the first round took place on Tuesday at FAI Headquarters, Abbotstown. The draw was performed by Fran Gavin, FAI Director of Competitions, and Sue Ronan, the Ireland’s women’s team manager.
A total of 24 teams will take part in the League Cup. The first two rounds will be run on a regional basis with four pools of six teams. Two teams from each pool advance to the quarter-finals, where there will be an open draw.
The 24 teams are the 20 SSE Airtricity League clubs; Ulster Senior League champions, Cockhill Celtic; Leinster Senior League champions, Crumlin Utd; Munster Senior League champions, University College Cork, and Mayo Football League. Clubs who qualified for European competition (2015/16) and the Setanta Sports Cup (2015) are exempt until the second round, so Cork City, Dundalk, St Patrick’s Athletic and Shamrock Rovers all receive byes to the second round.
The draw featured two clubs never previously in the competition, the Airtrcity League newcomers Cabinteely, who were drawn away to neighbours UCD, while UCC face a trip to Wexford Youths. First round matches will take place on Monday, March 9 with the final scheduled for Saturday, September 19.
Meanwhile, Athlone’s pre-season campaign continued last night (Tuesday) with a 4-3 defeat against neighbours Longford Town at the City Calling Stadium. Don Cowan put Longford ahead before Garbhan Coughlan equalised. Coughlan netted a second goal for Athlone after another Cowan strike and a goal by Tom Morris put Tony Cousins’ side 3-1 up. David O’Sullivan made it 4-2 for Longford, before Garreth Brady netted for Athlone. Eddie Wallace takes his Athlone side to Dalymount Park this Sunday for their latest pre-season fixture, against Bohemians, which kicks-off at 2pm.
The first round draw is as follows:
Pool 1 - Wexford Youths v UCC, Cobh Ramblers v Limerick. Byes: Cork City, Waterford Utd.
Pool 2 – Mayo League v Sligo Rovers, Galway Utd v Finn Harps. Byes: Derry City, Cockhill Celtic.
Pool 3 – Crumlin Utd v Bray Wanderers, Drogheda Utd v Shelbourne. Byes: Dundalk, St Patrick’s Athletic.
Pool 4 – UCD v Cabinteely, Bohemians v Athlone Town. Byes: Shamrock Rovers, Longford Town.
League Cup Schedule
FIRST ROUND - Monday, March 9.
SECOND ROUND - Monday, April 6 & Tuesday, April 7.
QUARTER-FINALS - Monday, May 18 & Tuesday, May 19.
SEMI-FINALS - Monday, August 3.
FINAL - Saturday, September 19.