General
- Friday September 4th, 2020 @ 11:00
Preview: Waterford Vs St Pat's
St Patrick's Athletic travel south to face Waterford FC in the RSC tonight in the SSE Airtricity League..
It is a fortnight since the Saints last played in the league, with Head Coach Stephen O'Donnell hoping to see an improved performance from the 2-0 Dublin derby defeat to Bohemians.
"We have had two weeks since our last game, which was a very disappointing result against Bohs. I thought we started well in the first 15 minutes, and then a sort of fortuitous goal rocked us a bit and ultimately we have to be better when we suffer a setback. Our response has to be better and the big thing when you go through out results this season is consistency."
"We need to have a mentality where we churn out performances week on week. It's no good getting to a good level one week, and then drop the following week."
With the league table seeing only three points between third and eighth, O'Donnell is aware that an upturn in results can see any side climb the standings rapidly, something he has been keen to stress to the Pat's squad.
"The way the league is now we are at the half stage. We start the second series away to Waterford who are in and around us. There's a lot of teams taking points off each other, but we just need to focus on ourselves and get that consistency and level of performance over 90 minutes.
"It's our focus and our aim to reel off back to back wins because over such a short league campaign, if you do that you put yourself in a really healthy position, starting from the Waterford game. So the players are looking forward to the game, have trained well over this past two weeks and are excited for the game."
In team news, O'Donnell has a fully fit squad to select from, with defender Shane Griffin returning from a one match suspension as the side look for a reversal in fortunes from the 1-0 defeat at home to Waterford back in February.
Saints' skipper Ian Bermingham is set to break the all time league appearances record for the club should he feature against the Blues. At present the defender is tied with club legend Paul Osam at 308 games.
