Davin relishing Tallaght tussle

There is always a special feeling before Cork City take on Shamrock Rovers.

It’s the passion, the familiarity between both sets of players and most of all the collision of the two best supported teams in the country.

Forever there will be an additional tension when the two meet – not much love is lost between the fans while on the field this season, there have been some low moments for both sides. But with momentum starting to build again for both teams after positive recent results, Friday's night's cup game is all set up to be a real belter.

Late goals were needed in their past two meetings in 2012 to ensure parity on both occasions – John Dunleavy’s sublime header in Tallaght one of the highlights so far for Tommy Dunne’s men this year, though Gary Twigg pinching a point on March 16 at Turner's Cross for the Hoops was the Scot at his best.

Although Dunleavy won’t have a chance to repeat the heroics of City's last visit to south Dublin due to the ankle injury he picked up at UCD last week, one man who hopes to come back into the starting line-up for the visitors is Davin O’Neill.

The Cobh-base striker came off the bench to score the winner in the game of Cork's season so far on Monday when City put the brakes on Drogheda United’s attempts to overhaul long-time league leaders Sligo Rovers and more importantly earned their first win since the tail-end of June.

And while he’s happy to be playing the role of impact sub, O’Neill will really want to start in the most eagerly anticipated game yet this campaign.

"I was delighted to get the winner (on Monday) but listen, I'm delighted to just come on. Anybody will tell you you're blessed to be playing in Turner's Cross,” he says.

"We can enjoy Friday a bit more because it's in the cup and Tallaght is always a great place to play your football.

“Playing on the telly is the stuff you dream of as a kid so I'm excited about it. There's a quarter-final place up for grabs and it should be a great battle.”

No doubt City are travelling to Tallaght with a little bit more confidence than they had heading into Monday evening’s game against Drogheda. With Drogs flying high and punching well above their weight in second place, it was never going to be easy for the home side.

Yet after such a dismayed performance against UCD three days before, a response was needed and the team certainly delivered. Though O’Neill remained on the bench until after the hour mark, his cameo was decisive and reckons that the team can now kick-on for the remainder of the year.

When asked if he thought a corner had been turned after the win, he said: "It is. It's quite a turnaround and it was great to get the three points. After the defeat on Friday night we were a bit despondent but we showed everybody how well he can play.

“To come away with the three points when we were down to 10 men was huge as well because it shows what character we have.”

And did it feel like a weight off the shoulders?

"Definitely, after a lot of draws we were looking for that win for so long. After the two defeats we were thinking whether it was ever going to come but we stuck at it and said we'd give it everything. Thankfully it has now paid off.

"It was great that we could bounce back so quickly. We'll be heading for relegation time soon so it was so important that we could get the win.”