Hoops get real and focus on Sligo fixture

Shamrock Rovers will attempt to forget about the controversy surrounding their upcoming showpiece friendly against Spanish giants Real Madrid when they take on Sligo Rovers at Tolka Park tonight.

The game, which was initially scheduled to take place at the Hoops' home venue in Tallaght, has been controversially moved to Tolka Park due to last-minute building work taking place at the Tallaght Stadium in preparation for Monday night's sell-out friendly against Real.

South Dublin County Council, who owns the Tallaght Stadium, has refused to allow the game to go ahead citing 'health and safety' reasons. However, Rovers feel the game against Sligo could still have gone ahead with entry restricted to the 3,500 main stand.

Hoops chairman Jonathan Roche has claimed that his side would not have agreed to play the money-spinning friendly had they known it would have interfered with their league campaign.

"Despite the distraction of the hype that surrounds next Monday's friendly against Real Madrid, all we're concentrating on is this crucial game against Sligo," insisted Hoops manager Michael O'Neill.

Shamrock Rovers are full of confidence after their 2-1 away win over Bray last weekend, while confidence is low in Sligo's squad after their 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Cork City last weekend.

O'Neill will be without the services of Sean O'Connor, who is serving a one-match ban, while Sean Webb is out with a long-term injury. O'Neill welcomes back the trio of Ollie Cahill, Stephen Bradley and Darragh Maguire to his squad for the visit of Sligo.

O'Neill's men will be looking to extend their recent run of good form, which has left them in second place, five points adrift of league leaders Bohemians. Yet, O'Neill knows that "Sligo Rovers will be very keen to get something from this game, so it won't be easy".

The Hoops have been gathering a lot of media attention of late, be it for the wall collapse in their game against Bray at the Carlisle Grounds, the last-minute rescheduling and relocation of their game this evening or the big match against Cristiano Ronaldo and company on Monday.