DESPITE contrasting fortunes for Drogheda United and Dundalk in the opening weeks of the season, there is eager anticipation in both camps ahead of Friday's big Louth derby at Hunky Dorys Park (7.45pm).

Without question, the momentum is with the Boynesiders after they fought back from 2-0 down to beat Cork City on their own patch, while Dundalk's home defeat by St Patrick's leaves them with one point and no goals scored after two games.

Home advantage for the Drogs also points to a victory for Mick Cooke's team, but clashes between the great rivals are always close and one unlucky bounce of the ball or moment of genius can be the difference between success and failure. That's a point both managers will be eager to get across for differing reasons.

Cooke guarded against any complacency yesterday, saying: 'I would imagine we would be slight favourites, but in a derby you never know and they will be fired up to get their first win.

'Dundalk are going down a different route, but Sean still has some experienced players and they are not as naive as people are making them out to be.'

The motivation for Dundalk is to improve on their performance against St Patrick's last week, which had supporters making an early exit from Oriel Park.

'We did not do ourselves justice,' said assistant manager Darius Kierans yesterday, 'but if we can step up on Friday's performance we can hopefully get something out of the game.

'Drogheda have got off to a good start. They got a great result in Cork and possibly could have got a point against Shamrock Rovers.

'But we played them in the Malone Cup which was a pretty competitive game and a draw would have been a fair result in that game even though we made five or six changes at half-time.

'It was a tight game and I think it will be the same on Friday. It will be tough, but we're going there to prove a point after last week.

'We just need win.'

Kierans rated Chris Shields as '50/50' to make a return to the Dundalk side in midfield, while Eoghan Osborne has returned to training and Mark Griffin is now three weeks away from his comeback from injury.

For their part, Drogheda are expected to be at full strength apart from Cathal Brady (groin strain), and that means Declan O'brien, Sean Brennan and Paul Crowley are all pushing for their first league starts after recovering from injury.

Looking back at last Friday's action, Cooke said he had every faith in his team coming back, even when they went 2-0 down in Cork.

'We could have been three or four up after 15 minutes, but their keeper made two wonderful saves and there were two goalline clearances.

'To concede a goal was an awful shock and the second one

to

get our

first was a bigger shock, but I thought if we got one back before half-time the minimum we would get was a point.

'There's great confidence in the squad on the back of our performance against Rovers the previous week and you could see the spirit and enthusiasm of the players, even the ones sitting on the bench or in the stand.

'It's a happy camp when you are winning, and if we can produce the same form on Friday I'm confident we can get the three points.' -Drogheda United and Dundalk are both in Leinster Senior Cup action next bank holiday Monday. Drogheda are away to Firhouse/clover at Tallaght IT (kickoff noon) and Dundalk face Crumlin United away at 2pm. -Louth's neighbours enjoyed contrasting fortunes in last week's EA Sports Cup first-round draw, as Drogheda United were handed an away tie against Athlone Town (Monday March 26th at 7.45pm) and Dundalk received a bye.

Both clubs are in Pool 4 and could be drawn against each other in the second round two weeks later, with Bohemians and Longford Town also in the pot.