General
- Friday April 5th, 2013 @ 0:13
Saints Look To Bounce Back
Bray Wanderers are the next opposition up for St. Pats as Liam Buckley’s side look to get back to winning ways this Friday in what is their third game in only six days.
Following last Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Dundalk, Pats will be hoping to continue their recent league form in the Carlisle Grounds that has seen them claim 4 victories in their last 6 league meetings.
The Saints last suffered a league defeat to the Seagulls in August 2010. On that day, despite a double from Danny North for Pats, Bray edged an entertaining game 3-2 thanks to a Shane O’Neill goal and a second half double from current Saints’ winger Jake Kelly.
For Saints’ manager Liam Buckley, bouncing back from the midweek defeat is the aim on Friday, though he admitted that he expects Pat Devlin’s side to make things very difficult for the away side.
“We weren’t happy with the way things ended up on Tuesday against Dundalk, so we’ll all be aiming to improve on that this Friday against Bray,” Buckley told stpatsfc.com.
“Pat has assembled a young squad together with some players who have huge potential.
When you add in the few experienced heads to that that they have, the likes of Jason Byrne for example, you have a very good side.
They’re unbeaten in their two home games to date so we know the challenge they’ll pose, but we’ll be looking to take the points on offer on the night.”
Buckley remains without the services of Shane McFaul with a groin injury, however he is optimistic the midfielder will be back in training next week.
Otherwise the Saints manager has a full squad to select from.
For Saints’ striker Christy Fagan, the opportunity to get back on the pitch so soon after the Dundalk defeat and put things right is a welcome one.
“Tuesday was very disappointing, but the good thing about having a game so soon is that we can hopefully go out and put on a performance to correct things,” Fagan commented when talking to stpatsfc.com.
In last year’s sole league fixture between the sides in the Carlisle Grounds, the former Manchester United and Bohemians striker notched two goals for the Saints in a thrilling 3-3 draw which saw Jason Byrne score a late equaliser in injury time to snatch a point for Bray.
23 year old Fagan believes that stopping Byrne on Friday will be key to the Saints’ chances of victory, while he admitted himself that he is looking to repeat his goalscoring feats from last year’s game.
“Chances have been hard to come by lately, but that’ll hopefully be different on Friday. We know that Bray will cause us problems as with someone like Jason Byrne up front, you know that if he gets a chance, he will take it.”
“But if we can do things right and stop them from playing their game, hopefully we can get into our rhythm and put in a performance that will win the game.”
