Monaghan Utd v Bray WanderersIF MONAGHAN United manager Mick Cooke derived a fair bit of confidence from his side's record against Waterford United prior to heading for the RSC on Tuesday night then he'll probably want to avoid the stats involving his club's encounter's with Bray Wanderers down the years as he prepares for tonight's first leg of the promotion/relegation play-off at Gortakeegan.

The sides last met at the ground six years ago when Wanderers secured promotion back to the top flight at the venue but more alarmingly from Cooke’s perspective, United have beaten their rivals just once at home in 18 attempts while Pat Devlin’s men have come out on top in each of the last four encounters, regardless of venue.

To judge by last Friday night’s performance against Shamrock Rovers, Wanderers would appear to be in a strong position to maintain the run but Devlin admits to it having been a very different story in Galway where his side was beaten 1-0 on Tuesday night. “We were terrible there,” he says. “We didn’t perform at all compared to the Rovers game and we have to put it behind us and get back to our best for these games because the stakes are very high for the club.”

The Bray boss has an even longer than usual list of problems, however, as in addition to the ongoing injuries problems that have sidelined Seán Prendergast, Seán Houston and John Mulroy, Adam Mitchell and Dave Webster are suspended while Richie Baker and Stephen Brennan are also laid up. “We’re sort of down to the bones as they say,” says Devlin, “and we know not to expect it to be easy up there but if can turn in a better performance than we did the other night then we’ll certainly be in with a shout.”

Cooke will be missing the suspended Barry Clancy while Aidan Lynch is rated as only 50/50 having picked up a calf strain. Karl Bermingham returns from injury, however, and the manager must decide to bring the striker back in for either Philly Hughes or Seán Brennan. “We’d be hoping to win the home leg so as to go down there on Monday in a decent position,” says Cooke, “but neither side will want to get beaten in the first leg and Pat is a very shrewd old character so we won’t be taking anything for granted.”