EYEBROWS WERE RAISED when Cabinteely FC were allowed entry to the League of Ireland First Division this season but they have made a right go at settling into life in the higher echelons of Irish domestic football.

They have proven masters of the promotional game off it, and their average of over 1100 fans in their gate per game is quite substantial for a second-tier side only starting out.

Their latest wind-up has been to ward off Mario Balotelli from showing up at Stradbrook looking for a game against Athlone Town on Friday night. The reason being? Their strikers are better than him. That is if you go by the simple statistic of how many minutes it takes them on average to find the back of the net.

They tweeted this message to the Liverpool striker on Monday afternoon.

They have previous form for stunts to promote the club. At the beginning of May, John McKeown scored a last minute goal for the Dublin side to earn a point against the then league leaders Finn Harps. After seeing on Twitter that this goal had ruined plenty of people’s accumulator bets, having backed against them, they used it as a way to get more fans in the gate.

You can’t blame them for having a go, but we doubt Balotelli will be in too much of a panic to join the Dublin outfit should he leave Liverpool.

‘Sort it out’ – The English media reaction to Ireland v England

Bohs pull off a shock, Heary under pressure and this weekend’s LOI talking points