Holders must travel

League Cup/Semi-final draw: Holders Longford Town were last night drawn away to Derry City in the semi-finals of the League …

League Cup/Semi-final draw: Holders Longford Town were last night drawn away to Derry City in the semi-finals of the League Cup. The other game will be between Shelbourne and UCD who have met twice in the league this season without Pat Fenlon's side managing a win.

The Brandywell game will be a repeat of the semi-final two years ago when Longford beat their rivals after extra-time at Flancare Park before losing to St Patrick's Athletic in the final.

"There's nothing much we can do about the fact that it's away," said Alan Matthews last night, "so we'll go up there and give it our best.

"Already this year we've gone to Cork and won, gone to Sligo and won so there won't be any fear about going to Derry, but they're probably the form team in the league at the moment. They're flying, so nobody's going to pretend that it will be easy."

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UCD reached the final of the competition in 2001 when they lost over two legs to St Patrick's Athletic while Shelbourne will be aiming to progress beyond the semi-finals for the first time since 1998 and, ultimately, to emulate the success of 1996 when they beat Sligo Rovers on penalties.

Semi-final draw: Derry City v Longford Town, Shelbourne v UCD. Matches scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, August 8th and 9th.

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone is Work Correspondent at The Irish Times