PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY LEAGUE OF IRELAND XI v MANCHESTER UNITED:WITH THE organisers claiming tickets sales heading for something in the region of 40,000 for tomorrow's game between an Airtricity League selection and Manchester United at the Aviva Stadium, the home side's players are under no illusion that they are the main reason people will be coming along.

Even that, though, has its advantages, with the likes of Gavin Peers from Sligo Rovers seeing the game as a welcome opportunity for locally-based players to make a positive impression on what might well be a sceptical audience at the newly-redeveloped stadium with, he hopes, a strong showing by Damien Richardson’s side potentially shattering a few preconceptions.

“It’s a good game to have from the point of view of getting the league out there and hopefully, it will push on and get bigger and better.

“We’re playing against supposedly the best team in the world. Everybody’s coming to watch them but it’s a chance to show how good we can be. It’s up to Damien to gel us all together and up to ourselves to do the best we can.”

It is, he says, nice to play a little part in the opening of the stadium and good to be in with a shout of repeating the sort of impact he had when he played for Sligo at another curtain raiser a while back.

“Yeah, I was part of the history of the opening of the Tallaght Stadium and got a goal there, so it would be nice to get a goal in the Aviva too, wouldn’t it?”

Alex Ferguson has confirmed that several of the bigger names who missed the tour to the United States and Mexico will feature in Dublin tomorrow night, with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick and Nemanja Vidic all on course to make their first appearances of the club’s pre-season.

Peers is quite taken with the idea of going toe to toe with Rooney, but admits it is Serbia defender Vidic for whom he has the greater admiration.

“I like Vidic, all right. I think he’s one of the best defenders in the world. I’d look up to him a lot. He’ a no-nonsense defender – I’d like to think a bit like myself.”

Peers is one of three Sligo players in the squad for the game and while Joseph Ndo sat out spells of yesterday’s training session in Malahide, all are expected to be available for selection come kick-off time.

Shaun Williams looked to be Richardson’s biggest doubt yesterday, with the former Drogheda United player sitting out the entire session but he, too, is said to be on course to feature if selected, while his Sporting Fingal team-mates, Alan Kirby and Ger O’Brien, were allowed to skip the heavier work undertaken by the group yesterday, with the club having played out a lively draw with Shamrock Rovers in Santry on Sunday.

Ferguson, meanwhile, has also said both of the club’s Irish internationals, John O’Shea and Darron Gibson, are likely to start tomorrow night’s match, with the Waterford man, who missed a large part of last season due to injury, likely to be given the honour of captaining the side.