Preview: First Division play-offs begin tonight

Four First Division sides begin their play-off campaigns tonight with the carrot of a place in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division if they can progress through three stages.

The teams ranked from second to fifth will play semi-finals over two legs in the coming days, before a one-off final next week to determine the opponent for the Premier Division outfit in the overall decider.

The prospect of a promotion looks good based on form lines alone.

Longford Town and UCD have overcome top tier outfits in the last two seasons to show it's very much realistic for the First Division team to progress through this format.

Secondly, the FAI Cup also showed the potential. Waterford beat big guns St Patrick’s Athletic and Dundalk, while Treaty United put four goals passed the Students in the quarter-finals.

The Munster sides meet tonight thanks to their second and fifth place finishes, while a struggling Galway United take on Longford Town in the mid-table clash.

All four clubs have had differing seasons.

Waterford started extremely slowly before a managerial and then ownership change transformed their season.

Danny Searle led the club to the semi-finals of the Cup but a flat performance against Shelbourne ruined a chance of a final appearance.

Nevertheless, they finished the league campaign with a win over Athlone and look well placed to go all the way.

Treaty have once again overachieved on a miniscule budget by reaching this stage and also lost by just a single goal to Derry for a place in the Aviva Stadium.

Tommy Barrett will look to gather a lead in the Markets Field on Saturday before the difficult visit to the RSC. The Blues have scored 10 goals in their last three home matches in the league.

In the other game, it’s fair to say