League title challengers Cork City and St Patrick's Athletic were handed tough starts to their Harp Lager-sponsored FAI Cup campaigns when the pair were drawn away to Shamrock Rovers and Galway United respectively in Dublin last night.
City's task looks especially tricky, for Damien Richardson's team are currently only two points above Shamrock Rovers in the league and the Dubliners have appeared capable of matching just about anybody on their day.
This has been particularly true at home, where they have been beaten just twice in nine starts this season.
St Patrick's, meanwhile, will travel west hoping to avenge their defeat by Galway at the quarterfinal stages of the competition last season. That game ended 1-0 in Galway's favour, but this season the Dubliners beat Galway 2-1 at Terryland Park in the league.
Cup holders Bray Wanderers face a difficult trip to face Derry City at the Brandywell. "I would have preferred to start with someone at home," said Wanderers manager Pat Devlin last night "but you have to start somewhere.
"Last year we played a few of the rounds away (in fact, their draw with Sligo in the quarterfinals was the only one) and we won. It would be nice to think that we can do the same again."
The draw threw up only one Dublin derby with St Francis being handed an attractive home tie with current league leaders Shelbourne, the club that has dominated this competition in recent years, winning it three times and making the final on two other occasions in the last seven seasons.
"We're very happy with the draw," said St Francis manager Jimmy Harte "we wanted a premier division club and they don't come any bigger than Shelbourne.
"This will be a great experience for the lads and we'll go for broke. We'll go into it knowing that we have nothing whatsoever to lose whereas Shelbourne will have everything to lose so it should make for a very enjoyable day."
Harte said that his initial hope would be to play the game at Baldonnel, but that the final decision will rest with the committees of the two clubs.
"Shelbourne's board might make an approach," he said, "and if they do then obviously we'll see what they have to offer."
Bohemians, meanwhile, will also be returning to a ground where they faced a key games last season, although in their case the trip to St Colman's Park will be a repeat of the first leg of their promotion/relegation play-off against Cobh Ramblers.
The Dublin club won that 5-0 and on current form - Roddy Collins's side are fifth in the premier division while John O'Rourke's outfit are 14 points off the lead in the first division - a similar sort of outcome would be expected.
One of the most remarkable aspects of last night's draw was the fact that, of the 10 competing non-league clubs, eight were drawn against each other.
The two that weren't, Bangor Celtic and Bluebell United, were both handed trips to premier division clubs, Drogheda United and Sligo Rovers, but even if they both lose there will be at least four amateur outfits in the draw for round three.
