General
- Thursday March 28th, 2024 @ 14:30
Preview: Drogheda Utd Vs St Pat's (29/03/24)
The Saints return from the international break with a trip to Co Louth as they face the first fixture of a three-game week away to Drogheda United.
Kick-off on Friday evening is at 7.45pm at Weavers Park.
A very small number of away tickets for the game are still available via the Drogheda United website HERE, the game will also be shown live on LOITV.
St Pat's come into the weekend off the back of a trip to Minnesota in the United States, where they made history by playing an international friendly against MLS side Minnesota United as Jon Daly's men marked St Patrick's week Stateside.
Minnesota won 1-0 through a superb second-half strike from Kervin Arriaga.
The Saints gave a strong account of themselves throughout and Ruairí Keating had the ball in the back of the net, but it was given as offside, replays showed Keating was actually onside.
Their last league outing was a 2-1 defeat at home to Shelbourne.
OPPOSITION WATCH:
Drogheda United currently sit in 9th place in the Premier Division table, with four points from their five league games, two points behind St Pat's who've picked up six points so far.
Their last game was on March 16th - a 3-1 loss to Sligo Rovers at The Showgrounds.
Max Mata got two goals in quick succession to put Sligo two up at half-time.
Andrew Quinn scored and got Kevin Doherty's men back in the game before Wilson Waweru's late effort made it 3-1 and secured Sligo the three points.
The Inchicore men shared the spoils with Drogheda over the course of last season, with both sides coming out with two league wins each.
The last league encounter between these sides was a 2-1 win for Drogs in Inchicore in September.
Warren Davis scored after six minutes before Chris Forrester replied to make it 1-1.
However, late on, Dayle Rooney's wonder strike hit the top corner to give the Louth side a 2-1 win.
The last time the sides met as Weavers Park was last June, with the home team coming out as 2-1 victors.
Adam Foley put Drogheda 1-0 to the good before a Chris Forrester penalty levelled things up.
However, former St Pat's player Darragh Markey stole the three points at the death for Drogheda with a 94th minute goal.
Drogheda's first journey to Inchicore last season ended in a 3-0 defeat. Three late Saints goals won it, with one from Jay McClelland and two from Chris Forrester.
The first meeting of 2023 was in April at Weavers Park. Forrester, once again, stole the headlines with two goals in a 3-1 away victory. Dylan Grimes scored for Drogheda, but a stoppage time finish from Eoin Doyle solidified the victory.
DALY: "We need to get everything to get the three points"
Manager Jon Daly is keen to stress the importance of maintaining the focus on this Friday evening if his side are to pick up all three points in the first game of a busy week.
With home matches come on Monday (against Sligo Rovers) and Friday (against Shamrock Rovers), Daly's attention is firmly on Friday night:
"We are looking forward to the game. It will be difficult, they are a good side.
Similar to ourselves, they'll probably feel like they should have more points on the board with the performances.
We're confident that we've analysed all of our games, we've looked back and we feel we should be further up the table but ultimately we're not.
We'll stay focused and continue to work hard and we know that a win or two will get us right back up there (in the table)
It's important to focus on ourselves and we need to give everything on Friday to get three points."
BRESLIN:"Everyone is looking forward to Friday
Anto Breslin has started 43 league games in a row for St Pat's, a run stretching back to the end of the 2022 campaign, the Blanchardstown native was keen to stress the importance of the sold-out away end this Friday night:
"Everyone has come back from Minnesota fit and healthy, we had good training sessions over there, a really competitive game and some team bonding too, everyone is looking forward to Friday now.
Drogheda is always a tough place to go. They're well drilled and organised and they work extremely hard. We know the challenge ahead of us.
Our fans always travel in numbers wherever we go, and they always make plenty of noise so it will be a good atmosphere up there.
I think we're more than capable of going up there and getting the three points and that's what we'll be aiming to do."
TICKETS / TV / UPDATES
The away allocation for the game is almost sold out, with a handful of tickets available via the Drogheda United website HERE.
The game will also be live on LOITV.
As always, updates can be found on the Official St Pat's FC App - available now on both the App Store and Play Store to download for free, we'll also have a live Watch Party on the App before, during and after the match.
Updates will also be available across all the club's social media channels and our WhatsApp channel.
Photo credit: Sportsfile
