General
- Thursday April 13th, 2017 @ 19:49
Team News: Galway Vs St Pat's
St Patrick's Athletic travel west on Friday evening to Eamonn Deacy Park as they look to return to winning ways in the SSE Airtricity League when they face Galway United (kick-off 7.45pm).
Both will be aiming to improve on their results from last week with the Saints having gone down 2-0 to Limerick and Galway having suffered a 1-0 defeat to Bray Wanderers in the Carlisle Grounds.
Last year's results saw the Saints edge the Tribesmen on two occasions after a 1-0 home win and a 3-0 away win in Eamonn Deacy Park last May, while Galway opened their 2016 campaign with a 3-0 win in Inchicore.
Speaking to stpatsfc.com ahead of the game, Pat's manager Liam Buckley confirmed he will again be without defender Darren Dennehy (ankle) and striker Christy Fagan (hamstring) through injury.
"Galway have been a little unlucky this season to date as they've drawn three out of seven which isn't bad, and their performances have been good in games I've seen. Shane Keegan is there a little while and is a good young manager so they will improve as the season progresses."
"The home support in Galway always get behind the team so we've played there in some big matches in recent years such as in 2015 when we won the EA Sports Cup so we know what to expect. The surface in Eamonn Deacy Park is usually kept in great condition so it should be a good game of football on the night."
"We know we need to show more of the form we produced in recent wins.
We were good in parts of the display against Limerick last week, so we need to be more consistent and keep concentration when we have to defend. If we can do that, hopefully we can come away with a result for our travelling fans."
For Saints' midfielder Graham Kelly, the importance of the game is not lost on him as a win for the Inchicore side could potentially see Liam Buckley's side move into the top 6.
"It's a huge game as while they're just behind us, all the teams in the league are bunched up together so every individual win at this stage of the league can move teams up several places in the standings."
"We need to get back to doing the basics right and if we do that we can hopefully get the three points. Ourselves and Galway haven't had the best of luck to date with results so that's why it's so important to try and pick up a result."
