Leinster Senior Cup

Evergreen are not playing.

They're playing in the Leinster Senior Cup.

They're playing at home to Malahide in that on Sunday.

2 o'clock out on the Kells Road.

They'll win this.

Leinster Junior Cup is a huge competition for them they won it two years ago so it's not like as if to say we don't really care about this they've got to give it the respect and they obviously will look at Gary we've had Gary on numerous times they will give this fixture the respect my point is you know two weeks before an FBI Junior Cup final they're lucky the week before the FBI Junior Cup final they have a Leinster Senior Cup game against Malahide which wouldn't have been all that important in the best of times it'll mean nothing to the players and with all due respect because a week before the fbi junior cup final that's going to be huge but you'd expect evergreen to win but they need to be careful yeah they

do jim absolutely and like you said they're going to want to stay in these competitions for as long as they possibly can um again look new park will have their own you know ambitions and aspirations within the game as well they're never going to make it easy but again with the quality that that evergreen have running right through their squad you'd expect them to go to new park and pick up three points

Callan, they have a home game on Sunday as well.

Yeah, God, they're so consistent, so very good.

They play in the Leinster Senior Cup now this weekend in Wexford against Glory Rangers, which was a game that I had half in mind to go to, but I'd be in St Connacht's now instead, so that'll be interesting to see how they go.

And then they'll have the Lumsden Cup semi-final, I think it's the following weekend.

The first of the Lumsden Cup semi-finals is this weekend, with St Anthony's making their first appearance in the last four there against Newbridge United, who've had an excellent season as well, so that should be a really good game.

He'll be hoping at least to get one winner, I'd say, over the two days.

Sure, is that the London Cup semi-finals there this weekend?

One of them is, yeah, because Clonwillian are playing in that Leinster Senior Cup, that takes priority.

So their game, which is against Clare Town, I think, that's probably the following weekend.

We're playing in the Phoenix Park, which if people know Dublin City, it's a very large city adjacent park on the western coast.

fringe of the city centre there's pitches there we're playing on the polo ground so you can imagine that you know lads are carrying the goalpost down from behind the gate lodge where the club was founded in September 1890 and they're probably cleaning horse muck off the pitch and all that sort of stuff but very very quickly like from 1890 like within a couple of years these young men and they're all very very young men most of them in their teens they very quickly become central to administrating football in Ireland those are founder members of the Leicester Football Association people like Dudley Hussey and Alex Blaney who are founder members of the club are very involved in that so they're involved in setting up not only the Football Association around Dublin and the wider area, they're involved in setting up the Leinster Senior League, Leinster Senior Cup, you know, there's tournaments and all that sort of stuff.

So very quickly, these guys who are like 17, 18, 19 years of age are basically developing football, organising it.

So, Most of the folks who set up BOWS are from a civil service training college called Bell's Academy in the north inner city.

Yeah, the League Cup, which effectively isn't run anymore.

That disappeared over COVID really and was never really brought back.

33 Leinster Senior Cups as well.

That's important.

And that's Castlebar away.

And just before I let you go, a big cup win over the weekend as well in the Leinster Senior Cup going to Athlone and getting a victory.

Yeah, look, it was kind of on, I suppose.

We would have preferred something we wouldn't have, would have liked to do without it at the time.

It was one of them things, you either go up and you play your full team and you kind of go at it or you risk injuries or risking lads for next weekend.

And we weren't trying to be billy.

down the competition but we had a number of players in our group and squad that were last weeks and they very much didn't get much minutes or game time as they deserved so we got to rotate the squad yesterday and a couple of young players coming through the club got to make their debut in a very competitive game up in that lawn and look the Leinster Senior Cup is a fantastic competition in the sense that we have Malahide at home in the next round in late September and if we were to be successful there we go into an open draw with the 11 League of Ireland clubs between Shelburne, Shamrock Rovers all of them in a group stage so It's a fantastic tournament in that sense next January or February to be at that stage.

So we'll be looking to hopefully play Malachi later in September and get the win there to look forward to that in the new year.

And Gary what's the build up like to a game like this from a I suppose from a preparation standpoint is it much of the same you know you do your training you know you probably not you know over emphasising too much about it or is there anything maybe changing the build up to such a big game and obviously having to travel you know the length of the country?

Ah look it was probably a little bit different after coming out with Pike Rovers we had to kind of readjust a little bit where we probably just done last week we done a little bit of recovery coming into we had a game obviously this weekend passed as well in the Leinster Senior Cup so we had to kind of weigh up the squad and weigh up where we were at so we were lucky enough that we had lads in the squad that were chomping at the bit for game time so we got to rotate a good bit of the squad and give lads an opportunity to stake a claim for the game this week what we've done this week I suppose we trained last night we changed up a little bit we were training Monday, Wednesday, Friday where we done our normal session last night the same probably a bit of analysis tomorrow night video analysis on Friday night and set pieces just there and be ready to go on Sunday look really if you're looking for at this stage going into a big match you're probably in trouble so we're happy where we're at in terms of preparation just about keeping that ticking over getting things right tactically and what to expect I suppose and painting pictures for the lads what to expect once they go up here on Sunday but generally we just try to keep things as normal as possible obviously have the different logistics here of so far away it is and the travel and all that but try and keep everything as normal as possible

And Gary, look at, you know, the travel is one thing, but look at the FAI Junior Cup, and let's call it a spade a spade.

It's the holy grail of football at the level that we are all involved in.

So we have a bit of experience there.

We were there a couple of years ago and beat Westport up there, so let's hope that's a good omen for us travelling on Sunday.

Listen, you mentioned last weekend, just to touch on the Leinster Senior Cup, your regulars in this competition now.

Great win, 4-1 above Willow in Nathlone.