Farcial Setanta Cup Needs Rethink

The look on Ryan Guy's face had to be seen to be believed. The sun shone all day in Dublin last Monday. It was glorious. The nicest day of the year so far by a county mile.

We were to play Drogheda. After our opening League victory over Galway we were in the mood to continue our winning streak, nothing was going to stop us......well thats what Ryan thought.

We made our way to the game with a spring in our step and with the sun at our backs. Then we were told the match was called off due to a frozen pitch. Kid you not!

Ryan was totally perplexed. Only in Ireland can there be a glorious day with sunshine and then a match called off due to a frozen pitch. No game but we took the opportunity to have a training session instead. And a very good one at that. The match is rescheduled for next week but with a small squad at Pats, fixture congestion is going to be a problem we have to tackle in the coming weeks.

We had no League game due to our Setanta Cup showdown with Lingfield on Saturday night. I get a great buzz out of playing at Windsor Park. Its a great venue and the atmosphere is always palpable. Their fans certainly know how to make you feel welcome.

Despite going down 1-0 to a late goal I was happy with the teams performance and even with the loss we have booked our place into the semi-final where Sligo Rovers await. This promises to be a cracking couple of games. The Setanta Cup is a great competition but a serious rethink of the competition is needed.

In all honesty the current competition has been a farce. Ok, Cork and Derrys expulsion hasnt helped but the competition needs a new format. A knockout competition is the way forward and heres hoping that will happen next season.

We celebrated Mothers Day in great fashion at Inchicore with a charity game as part of Dublins 98 Radiothon. The years were rolled back as Pats legends including Paul McGrath, Johnny MacDonnell and Paul Osam came together to play a team of celebrities.

A great day was had by all and we managed to raise over 3,000 for the Dublin Childrens Hospital, Temple Street and Tallaght.

Tonight is the first Dublin derby of the season, as we take on Rovers in Tallaght. Ever since I started playing in the league, Dublin derbies are always a great to play in. As someone who isnt the most prolific of goal scorers, I managed to score the winner against Rovers two seasons ago. Now it would be great to do that again.

Last year they managed to get the better of us by winning three of the four matches. Hopefully this year we can start as we mean to go on and get a good result away from home.