Old rivals clash at Wilton Park

Courts go in their quest of their first trophy of the season but manager Gary Dunn is expecting a tough encounter against their Waterside neighbours, who were defeated by Eglinton in last week’s City Cup final.

“We just have to performance to the best our abilities, as Ardmore is a very strong team and they’ll probably be even stronger after losing last week’s final,” admitted Dunn.

“Ardmore have been in great form but we have seen that they can be beat and if we play to our potential then we too can beat them.”

Dunn has praised his young side who despite a huge injury list continues to keep them on course for some trophies this season.

“We have been disseminated with injuries all year and we have played matches with four or five players playing through the pain barrier. But the boys have showed great spirit in keeping us where we are now,” he added.

“Because of the injuries we had no choice but to bring players up from the Reserve team and to be fair to them they have more than held their own and because of that have kept their place and stepped up to the mark.

“It has been a great year up to now but we want to finish off with a bit of silverware for all the hard work.”

As for Ardmore boss Damien McGee is hoping for a positive reaction from his players, after their defeat last Friday night.

“We are looking for the right positive recognise and I’m looking for them to bounce back,” added McGee.

“It’s a good opportunity for the players to redeemed themselves and I’ll be expecting a big display from them.

“We have the chance to bounce back against a team who could still possibly win the Premier Division.

“I’m normally down after a defeat, but on Friday night I wasn’t that disappointed because I knew that the better team had won.

“For whatever reason we just simply didn’t get started against Eglinton and I don’t know why that was. To be fair to them they were very good and maybe they didn’t let us get started.

Ardmore have a number players missing with first choice centre-back pairing Danny Doherty and Stephen Melly both out, however McGee is confident his big squad can cope.

“We are struggling with a few injuries, Philip Deehan who picked up a knee injury against Eglinton.

“Danny is definitely out because of work commitments, he got last Friday night off work, but can’t get it off this week and Steven is suspended, after he got sent-off against Eglinton.

“But lucky for us we have a big squad and the players who will come in our good enough to do a job for us.”