Pressure on Derry City to overcome 'Achilles' heel' Drogheda
Kevin Doherty's Drogs beat the Candystripes 2-0 at Aviva Stadium in last year's decider, a game that proved to be Ruaidhri Higgins' last at the helm.
He was replaced by Tiernan Lynch, but Derry have been plagued by familiar inconsistencies in the league, failing to put genuine pressure on table-toppers Shamrock Rovers.
Lynch's side are 11 points back in third, and only ahead of Drogheda on goal difference.
There's a sense they need another strong cup run to keep their campaign alive, and perhaps exorcise some demons from last year's final. But they will not have it easy against a team who relish being the underdogs.
"Drogheda have sort of been the Achilles' heel of Derry over the last couple of seasons," said former Dundalk striker David McMillan on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"Any time they've been close to dragging Shamrock Rovers in in a title race, I can think of games where they've had to go to United Park and not been able to get a win.
"Obviously there was the cup final last year when Drogheda got one over on them when I think most people were tipping Derry to take advantage of the big pitch in the Aviva.
"Derry are at home, and with the pitch up there you'd expect them to have the know-how to be able to navigate this game. We're talking about the money they've spent, the players they've brought in, by all means they should be favourites - heavy favourites - but you look at the league form, these two are level in the table.
"You expect Derry to win the game but honestly it's such a difficult match to call. If there's any team that can dig in, defend well, counter, break you down and get a 1-0 win away from home it's Drogheda. I expect Derry to win, being the home team, but I wouldn't be shocked if the result goes the other way."
Richie Towell agrees. The ex-Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers man says there's "massive pressure" on Derry to overcome this hurdle and go all the way.
"I was in Dalymount Park watching the Bohs-Drogheda game," he said.
"Bohemians dominated possession... and Drogheda were really, really comfortable, just defending their box, defending deep in their own half. That's exactly what they're going to do when they go up to Derry.
"We spoke about Drogheda not conceding goals... Derry have only scored one goal in their last four (league) games. It makes for a really intriguing tie.
"I think people say that word 'revenge', they're going to get a bit of revenge for the cup final. It's going to be up to the Derry players and how they handle the pressure on the night because let's be realistic, it's a massive game for them.
"They're kind of out of the league title race now so if there's one club that does need to go and win the FAI Cup it probably is Derry on the back of what happened last year. There's massive, massive pressure on the players up there for the game."
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