General
- Thursday August 11th, 2016 @ 16:01
TEAM NEWS: Saints Vs Galway United (Friday, 7.45pm Richmond Park)
St Patrick's Athletic are back in SSE Airtricity League action on Friday night in what is their first home game in over two months as they face Galway United (kick-off 7.45pm).
The Saints will be looking for a repeat of their away victory over Galway back in May when they were 3-0 winners in Eamon Deacy Park, a stark contrast to the opening night of the season when Tommy Dunne's side left Inchicore as 3-1 winners.
Both sides head into the game off the back of good results with the Tribesmen having defeated league champions Dundalk 1-0 last Friday, while the Saints were 3-1 winners over Shamrock Rovers on Monday night as they progressed to the EA Sports Cup Final.
Speaking to stpatsfc.com ahead of Friday's game, Supersaints manager Liam Buckley spoke of his delight at the side's victory over the Hoops last Monday, while also expressing his desire that his side move on and focus on their league campaign.
"Beating Rovers and getting into another EA Sports Cup final was great for the team and the players worked really hard so I was delighted that their efforts were rewarded. However we've got to move on now and focus on the job at hand on Friday," Buckley admitted.
"We've had two tough games against Galway this year and the results have differed greatly. Galway had a tremendous win last week over Dundalk, so they're in good form and will again be difficult opposition once more. Tommy [Dunne] is doing a great job there again so we'll have to be at it from the go in order to get a result."
In team news, Buckley confirmed that David Cawley is recovering from a broken collarbone sustained in last week's 1-1 in Derry and he is likely to out for a number of weeks. Sam Verdon also misses out having suffered concussion in Monday's EA Sports Cup Semi-Final, while midfielder Keith Treacy faces a late fitness test as he recovers from hamstring injury.
Having scored in the Saints' 3-0 win over Galway back in May, defender Sean Hoare told stpatsfc.com that while the result suggests a comfortable win, it was far from it with Hoare praising the battling spirit of Galway.
"The two games we've had with Galway this year couldn't have contrasted more. The first game of the season we played well in for the first hour and we just lost our way after that and they punished us. Second game was really tight and then we scored a couple of goals and came away 3-0 winners," Hoare admitted.
"Looking to Friday though as a stand alone game, we know we've got to beat the teams around us so if we perform to the standard that the lads on Monday produced against Shamrock Rovers, we can get result. Galway have been going well as they showed against Dundalk last week, but at home we know we can get a result if we just do our stuff."
