Glenville dreaming of Aviva appearance

GLENVILLE’S David Lloyd has declared the club happy with their last-16 FAI Intermediate Cup draw, seeing the home draw against lower league Edenderry Town as an opportunity to advance in the competition.
“We’re pleased to be at home, and to have avoided the big boys,” Lloyd told GazetteSport of Tuesday’s draw for the latest step on the road to the Aviva.
“Making the last-16 was a key step. We’ve been here twice before, and we got beaten both times, but the last-16 [the current stage] gets us into the senior cup and that’s a big deal for a club of our size.
“The last two times we played in the senior cup we drew Bohemians, who were champions of Ireland at the time, and Limerick. Those games get the club’s name out there and help us get in players that might not otherwise come to Glenville.”
On the intermediate draw, the club PRO added: “Obviously, you also have to look at being just a few games away from a game in the Aviva. The bigger intermediate clubs can expect to have some chances to play there fairly regularly, teams like Crumlin United and Avondale. For us, it would be huge. If we can get past Edenderry, it’s only two wins away.”
Glenville were relegated from the top tier of Leinster football last year, finishing bottom of the Sunday Senior division, and currently sit mid-table in the Senior 1 division. They have encountered Edenderry before, and Lloyd recalls them being hard to beat away.
“Getting the home draw is great as they were really hard to travel to,” he says, adding that “there’s really not a lot between dozens of sides in these divisions. The important thing for us with this draw is getting a game that’s winnable. While we’re a league above them, we certainly can’t take it for granted. But this gives us a great chance.”
“It’s also key that the game falls in late January,” Lloyd continued. “We have three players out now who would probably be three of the first names on our team sheet. They’ll all be back by then, and it should have a big impact on our goalscoring.”
Glenville also hope that the recovery of some of their injured players might help with a late promotion push back to the top tier.
“We don’t think it’s impossible yet, though it might look it based only on the league table,” Lloyd added.