FAI Cup Preview: Cork City -v- Athlone Town

• Dave Donnelly
• Fri, Aug 25 2017




CORK CITY

Bottom faces first in the League of Ireland in what promises to be the weekend's second most one-sided sporting contest at Turner's Cross on Friday night (kick-off 7.45pm).

 

It's difficult to imagine Cork City dragging this one out as long as Floyd Mayweather will against Conor McGregor on Saturday, however, with a league and cup double on the cards.

 

John Caulfield's side returned to winning ways on Monday night with a scrappy 1-0 win over Finn Harps in Donegal. Garry Buckley netted the vital goal 20 minutes from time.

 

City made it through the first round of the Cup with a similarly tight margin as Kieran Sadlier's goal around the same point broke Bray's resistance at the Carlisle Grounds.

 

It's difficult to see the Rebel Army making difficult work of this one, however, and Caulfield may opt to make a couple of judicious changes with the run-in in mind.

 

“We are looking forward to Athlone coming down and we expect them to have a much stronger team than they had for the last couple of games,” Caulfield told the club's media team.

 

“We have had a few knocks ourselves but we are getting most of those fellas back and a number of them come into the reckoning for Friday.

 

“We will treat Athlone the same way we treat every other game and we will have our strongest team out.

 

“We will need that because we are at home, we haven’t scored in our last two home games and haven’t won them, and we want to go back to performing the way we were.

 

“There is something special about the cup as we know from the last two years. Where would you want to be on the last day of the season but the Aviva?

 

“We had disappointment two years ago and the elation of last year, and this is a chance to get to the quarter finals.”

 

John Dunleavy and Alec Byrne are long-term injury absentees while there are doubts over Greg Bolger, Robbie Williams and Achille Campion.

 

 

ATHLONE TOWN

Athlone Town cruised into the second round of the FAI Cup thanks to a 5-0 win over Ballincollig at Cork Institute of Technology two weeks ago.

 

It was the club's first win in more than three months and the first since Roddy Collins took over in May.

 

Normal service resumed in the league on Saturday, however, as Athlone fell to a 7-1 defeat away to local rivals Longford Town – their heaviest defeat of the season.

 

Athlone named just 13 players in total – two of their possible allocation of seven subs – including goalkeeper Conor Gleeson and under-19 player Peter Arebiyi-Atoki.

 

Athlone Town have failed to provide any team news as usual.

 

 

Referee: Robert Hennessey.

 

 

MATCH STATS

The two sides last met during the 2014 season, the last time Athlone competed in the Premier Division.

 

City won 3-0 at Lissywollen and 1-0 in Turner's Cross before the final meeting in Athlone ended in a 2-2 draw.

 

 

BETTING

Cork City 1/20; Draw 11/1; Athlone Town 40/1.

 

PREDICTION

Cork City 5 – 0 Athlone Town

 

 

Cork City

Injured: Alec Byrne, John Dunleavy.

Doubtful: Greg Bolger, Achille Campion, Robbie Williams.

Suspended: None.

 

Athlone Town

Injured: Unavailable.

Doubtful: Unavailable.

Suspended: None.