FAI Youth Cup 4th Round Preview ; Lucan United v St Brendans Park
FAI Youth Cup 4th Round (Last 16 )
Sunday 22nd February 2015
Lucan United v St Brendans Park Fc
Kick off , 2.00pm
Venue , Airlie Heights Lucan, Co.Dublin .
By Tommy Naughton
St Brendans Park Fc are the only Kerry side left in this seasons FAI Youth Cup and this Sunday they travel to Dublin to face Lucan United in the 4th Round last 16 .
St Brendans Park are top of their Youth section the Kerry District League and are unbeaten in the league campaign after seven games . Their only defeat this season came in a cracking Munster Junior Cup Kerry area final against Killarney Celtic . St Brendans Park will have a number of players from last seasons U16 side who reached the SFAI Cup final and will travel to Dublin full of confidence even if others have them down as ranked outsiders against a strong Dublin outfit . The Park received a bye in the first round before travelling to Rathkeale in the second round where they won on a 4-0 score line . In the last round they again were away from home where they defeated Granagh United by three goals to two in extra time .
Lucan United play in the DDSL Super Sunday league and are at present in seventh place with two wins from seven league games in a division that has teams like Home Farm , Dundalk and Tolka Rovers . In the last round of the FAI Youth cup they defeated Lakelands Fc from the DDSL Sunday Super league on a penalty shoot out after the game finished one apiece .
St Brendans Park are jointly managed by Graham o Sullivan and David Magee who were the managers of the U16 side last season . Earlier this week David told me how the season has gone and how preparations for Sunday have been going , ” The season has been going ok with some decent performances .We have had a strong start to our league campaign and have only lost 1 game in all competitions all be it a final against a decent Killarney Celtic side in the Munster Cup Kerry Final. All in all its been a good season to date. Preparation for the game been has been going as well as could be expected with the lads putting in the effort at training and having an extra session every week has been beneficial for us. We have struggled with injuries of late and hopefully Fergal Ryan and Ryan Dolan can shake of their knocks and be available at the weekend but at the moment it’s touch and go but we have a strong squad that we are confident in. We had a tough league game as well which we won 1-0 on Tuesday night so it’s good to get a game under our belt before we head to Dublin.
Looking at the challenge of Lucan United David feels Confident as had this to say , ” From Lucan we expect a very tough game as you do whenever you play a side from Dublin. We know they will be very vocal and very organised and will also have a lot of quality. We expect a few players from their U17 side to be playing as they were strong last year. They lost an SFAI quarter final tie last year against Regional the side we beat in the semi final on our way to the national final. We will be wary of the threat Lucan pose but are confident in our own squads ability and it should be a cracking game on Sunday.
Lucan United Youths are managed by Roy Shanahan and he told me about the prospect of facing St Brendans Park this weekend , “We at Lucan United are all very excited about the upcoming game vs St Brendan’s Park. It is almost three years since our club ventured south west to fulfill our fixture against St Brendans Park in the all Ireland U15 competition. It was a hard fought contest which we fortunately escaped with a victory. But what we mostly remember was the hospitality we received on arrival and after the game itself. We hope to return that generous hospitality and welcome St Brendan’s Park to Lucan this weekend. We have had a very stop/start season this year with fixtures sporadic at times. A gap from October 12th to Feburary 8th between league games is not ideal. With only the odd cup game in between to keep the focus. We are not under any illusions about how tough a game it will be this weekend following our battle three years ago. And with St Brendan’s Park in such fantastic form in their league, we know we have been handed one of the hardest draw’s in the competition ” .
All of Kerry Soccer will be hoping that St Brendans Park can continue their run in the competition and advance to the last eight with a win on Sunday .