JON DALY is keen to mount his own successful defence of the FAI Cup.
Daly led St Pat’s to success in last November’s final but was sacked less than six months later.
He was out of work for just 16 days before being handed the reins at Dundalk.
His priority is keeping the club in the top flight and an upturn in results has lifted them off the foot of the Premier Division table.
A win over Drogheda United last week extended the gap between them and their local rivals to five points and they get the chance for more bragging rights again tonight.
But Daly has his own personal motivation as well ahead of the trip to Weavers Park.
The Dubliner explained: “We’d like to go as far as we can obviously.
“I’m the current holder of the FAI Cup in terms of the manager and I would like to go and retain it and I would like to go and win it at a different club.
“I know that’s very, very difficult to do and going away from home to your local rivals in the first round is very tough.
“Last week’s game will have no kind of impact or any sway on what happens on Friday night.
“It’s going to be a totally different game and it’ll bring its own problems.
“They’re going to outnumber us fans-wise so it’s going to be another intense atmosphere that we’re going to have to deal with and a lot of our new players will be experiencing that for the first time.
“I’ve been to a couple of Louth Derby games in pre-season, the Jim Malone Cups and stuff like that and they’ve always been good atmospheres so I’m looking forward to it.”
Aodh Dervin could make his debut for Dundalk following his move from Longford Town but Paul Doyle may miss out with a hamstring injury.
James Bolger could make his first appearance for Drogheda after he joined from Swedish club Bodens FK.
Jethren Barr, Aaron McNally, Gary Deegan and Zishim Bawa are again expected to miss out through injury, while Darragh Markey is doubtful after limping off with a knock at Oriel Park last week