General
- Sunday April 16th, 2017 @ 15:37
Team News: St Pat's Vs Bray Wanderers
St Patrick's Athletic continue the defence of their EA Sports Cup title as they host Bray Wanderers on Bank Holiday Monday in Richmond Park (kick-off 5pm).
The Saints are aiming to continue their run in the EA Sports Cup which has seen them win the past two competitions and last year saw them defeat the Seagulls in the Quarter-Finals 3-2 after extra-time.
"It's an important game for us as we've won this EA Sports Cup title the last two seasons and it's important for us moving forward," Saints' manager Liam Buckley told stpatsfc.com.
"We'd like to win the game as it'll build confidence and also create a bit of momentum moving on as we've only lost one out of the last five."
Pat's already have one victory over Bray in 2017 having won 4-0 in the Leinster Senior Cup at the beginning of the 2017 season, while Wanderers claimed a narrow 2-1 win in Inchicore on the opening night of the SSE Airtricity League season.
Buckley believes that another close fought game is to be expected when Monday's second round game gets underway.
"We did well against Bray in pre-season in the Leinster Senior Cup, but that said in the league in Richmond Park, they beat us in a game with little between us. When they moved the ball forward quickly, we didn't deal with it well at all so we will have to be better at coping with that on Monday evening."
"Be it EA Sports Cup, Leinster Senior Cup - it doesn't matter what competition it is, we go out to win every game and wins breed confidence in the group. We need to stay focused on every game - I still feel we're a little bit frantic from our general play, but all the signs are that we have a good team."
Buckley will make a late check on a number of players involved in last Friday's 1-1 leaegue draw against Galway United, while Darren Dennehy and Christy Fagan remain out with ankle and hamstring injuries.
