• 

  Under21

• Monday April 28th, 2008 @ 14:16

A-Team Action Begins

The St Patrick's Athletic A-Team will take to the field for their first fixture at the Belfield Bowl tonight as they take on UCD in the 'A' Shield.

A-Team Chief Maurice O'Driscoll told stpatsfc.com that first-team players Brendan Clarke, Michael Keane, Bobby Ryan and Glen Fitzpatrick will all be involved tonight.

"It's a chance for the four or five lads who weren't involved last night to pick up on their match fitness.

"We have several promising young players making the breakthrough from the underage setup and they'll get their chance also."

The Shield competition is being used a warm-up event before the A-Team Championship starts in June and O'Driscoll will be adding to his squad prior to the season beginning.

"We have already brought in Gavin McArdle who is a very talented young player who has had terrible injury problems. He was due to join Middlesbrough from Home Farm but that fell through due to injuries. We're delighted to have brought him in and we hope to add a few more players to the squad in May.

"We also have Joey Hayden, Brian Rooney and Daryll (Moore) still with us from last season so we'll be ok.

"UCD are the benchmark at this level and it will be a good test for us tonight to ascertain where we're at."

Kick-off tonight is 7 p.m. and all support is welcome.