General
- Thursday February 23rd, 2023 @ 13:00
Preview: St Pat's Vs Shels (24/02/23)
St Patrick's Athletic are ready for their second home game of the season this Friday, Shelbourne will be the visitors to a sold out Richmond Park.
Home tickets are totally sold out yet again with a crowd of over 5,000 set the attend this Dublin Derby, away tickets are from Shelbourne FC directly and are available online only, some away tickets remain available.
The game will also be live on LOITV with Oisin Langan and former Ireland international Keith Treacy in the commentary box, their coverage will begin at 7.30pm.
The Saints began the 2023 campaign with a 1-1 draw against Derry City last Friday, Jordan McEneff had given The Candystripes the lead before Captain Joe Redmond's late equaliser while Shelbourne drew 0-0 at home to Drogheda United.
Head To Head
St Pat's have won 52 of the 142 league meetings between the teams so far, with Shels coming out on top 55 times, the other 32 have been draws.
St Pat's and Shelbourne met four times last season and it's fair to say they didn't disappoint with an average of 4.5 goals per game and 18 goals in total, 12 of them scored by The Saints.
The 2022 season began with a 3-0 Pat's win at Tolka Park thanks to goals from Darragh Burns, Mark Doyle and Jay McClelland before a 2-1 win for Shels at Richmond Park and then two thrillers to end the campaign.
The teams shared eight goals in a 4-4 draw in the game of the season at Tolka in October, before St Pat's finished the year with a 4-0 victory at Richmond Park on the last night of the season, Eoin Doyle (2), Anto Breslin and Ben McCormack were on target for St Pat's.
"We're expecting a tough game" - Clancy
Manager Tim Clancy spoke to the media during the week and was asked about the huge attendances the league has seen on the opening weekend and what impact the big attendances can have on the games, particularly the Dublin derbies.
"The atmosphere at the games has been absolutely brilliant, attendances are up across the league and we've sold out our opening two home games, I think having more people at the matches adds to the product on show on the pitch.
Our games against Shels last year were fairly competitive. I know we beat them 4-0 at the end of the season but they were preparing for the cup final so they probably took their eye off the ball. They beat us once and we beat them 3-0 on the opening night, we also had that crazy game over in Tolka that ended in a draw.
We're expecting a tough game, they are a fit team who are well organised so we'll need to match their energy and their fitness levels and hopefully we'll still to be able to create chances and get goals and win the game."
"The atmosphere is deadly!" - Mulraney
Jake Mulraney made his St Pat's debut in last Friday's 1-1 draw with Derry City at a sold out Richmond Park, he's been talking about the atmosphere in Inchicore and facing Shels in our second game this Friday in another red hot atmosphere.
"I've played in front of bigger crowds during my time in the UK and in America, but the buzz on Friday was just different. Richmond is only a small stadium but everyone is on top of you so when it's full it's hectic, it's deadly, it was a very good buzz and I really enjoyed playing in front of our fans for the first time.
The crowd is a big push for the boys and we need the them, you get a kick off them and we hope to start the game well against Shels on Friday and get the crowd behind us early doors and we can go from there."
Team News:
Harry Brockbank (calf) Adam Murphy (knock) will miss the game.
Image credit: Sportsfile
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