General
- Sunday May 5th, 2024 @ 13:00
Preview: Sligo Rovers Vs Saints (06/05/24)
St Patrick's Athletic will be looking to make it a great Bank Holiday Weekend with a win away to Sligo Rovers at The Showgrounds on Monday (5pm KO).
A win for Jon Daly's men could see them move back up into the Premier Division top four ahead of Friday's trip to face Shamrock Rovers.
The Saints come into this game off the back of a 1-0 win at home to Drogheda United on Friday night.
After a promising start, Pat's capitalised through a moment of brilliance from Ruairi Keating, who cut inside Drogheda centre back Hayden Cann before sliding the ball into the bottom corner for his third goal this campaign.
Brandon Kavanagh was, once again, the man to set up the goal, which brings him up to seven assists in the Premier Division this season, more than any other player in the LOI Premier Division.
OPPOSITION WATCH:
Sligo Rovers are in 8th place in the league, with 14 points from their 13 games, after an excellent start, they've lost four and drawn two of their last six games.
Their last outing was a 1-0 defeat at home to Waterford FC on Friday evening.
A Christie Pattison strike in the 46th minute earned his team the three points away from home.
St Patrick's Athletic and Sligo Rovers last faced off at the beginning of last month at Richmond Park, a Luke Turner double and an excellent long-range finish from Mason Media helped the Inchicore men to a 3-0 victory.
These teams had an equal share of the spoils during the 2023 campaign, with both sides getting two wins each.
Sligo won the first two, with Pat's coming out on top in the last two meetings of 2023.
The last meeting between the clubs in 2023 was a 1-0 win for Pat's at Richmond Park in October 2023, with a stunning Kian Leavy strike securing the points, a result which secured European football for the Saints for 2024.
Chris Forrester's penalty and a Sam Curtis strike - on his 50th appearance for the club - helped Jon Daly's men to a 2-0 triumph on their previous visit to The Showgrounds last August.
DALY: "It would be nice to come out of the weekend with six points"
Saints' Manager Jon Daly is hoping to make it two wins from two over the Bank Holiday weekend, he spoke to the club Youtube channel ahead of Monday's game, you can watch that full interview via the link above:
"After a good win on Friday, our focus turned straight to Sligo and seeing what they've done most recently.
We'll make sure that the players are as well recovered from Friday as they can be.
It's a busy couple of days, we prepared well on Sunday and worked on the different elements of the game and what we're looking to do against them, team shape wise and set plays.
We need to start picking up results on the road. Our away form hasn't been of the level we would've liked, it's important that when we go away from home we try to pick up as many points as possible.
Sligo is a tough venue, it always has been, but we'll be well prepared and looking forward to the game.
It would be nice to come out of the weekend with six points and it would set us up going into the game the following week."
KEATING: "I think our best performance this year, goals wise and results wise, was Sligo at home, so hopefully we can replicate that."
Ruairi Keating was our match winner on Friday with his third goal of the season and he's hoping The Saints can put in a similar performance to the last time against Sligo just over a month ago"
"It's going to be another tough game, it's not easy everywhere you go in this league, even in home games, everyone is out to beat you, especially playing for a club like St Pat's.
We know what we have to do in Sligo, we'll go down there with a game plan and hopefully we can execute it.
I think our best performance this year, goals wise and results wise, was Sligo at home, so hopefully we can replicate that.”
TEAM NEWS
Captain Joe Redmond is out with an ankle injury while Tom Grivosti is getting closer to a return, Jamie Lennon is available again having served a one match suspension on Friday.
TICKETS / TV / UPDATES
Away tickets are available online only via the Sligo Rovers website HERE
As always, updates and our live Watch Party 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.
Updates will also be available across all the club's social media channels and our new WhatsApp channel.
St Patrick's Athletic vs Sligo Rovers will also be shown live on LOITV.
Photo credit: Sportsfile
