Jon Daly is hoping to continue his impressive run on the road when Dundalk make the short trip to Weaver’s Park to face Drogheda United in the second round of this year’s Sports Direct Men’s FAI Cup next month.

Daly led St Patrick’s Athletic to the trophy last year despite being drawn away from home in every round of the competition and speaking just minutes after the draw was made, he said he had a feeling that Dundalk would be pulled out of the hat as an away team

“As a manager, I’ve not been drawn at home in the cup yet,” said Daly. “At Pat’s last year, we won it playing away from home all the way through so it’s just continued that theme for me.

“When it comes to cup draws, primarily you want a home draw but we’ll take what we’ve got and we’ll just have to try and and get through and see where it takes us. It’s away from home against our nearest rivals so it’s going to be a tough game, but it’s one that we’ll look forward to.”

The Louth Derby is one of three all-Premier Division ties in the second round with Bohemians drawn at home to Shamrock Rovers while 2022 winners Derry City were paired at home to 2023 winners, and present cup holders, St Patrick’s Athletic.

“They’re six massive teams and three of them are definitely going out so, straight off the bat, you’re losing 30 percent of the teams from the top division in the first round,” said Daly. “It means that going forward, it’s probably going to be a very open draw for the teams that do go through but that’s something you can only look at once you get through.”

The FAI Cup tie will come a week after a league meeting between Dundalk and Drogheda United at Oriel Park on July 12th.

“It’s funny how that actually works because it happens quite a lot,” said Daly. ” When you look at cup draws, you get drawn against someone and you often play them a week or two before or the week after.

“It gives both teams a little look at where they’re at but we’ve got some tough games between now and then, and ones where we’re hopeful we can pick up points and start getting ourselves to climbing that table.”