General
- Thursday March 2nd, 2023 @ 13:54
Preview: Dundalk Vs St Pat's (03/03/23)
St Patrick's Athletic are ready for their third game of the new season as they make the trip up the M1 to face Dundalk tomorrow night.
The League of Ireland Premier Division action at Oriel Park will get underway at 7.45pm, away tickets are totally sold out with over 500 Super Saints set the cheer the lads on.
The game will also be live on LOITV for those not in attendance in Co. Louth.
St Pat's continued their positive start to the season with a 1-0 victory over Shelbourne at Richmond Park last Friday, last season's top scorer Eoin Doyle popped up with a late winner to secure a deserved three points for Tim Clancy's men.
The Saints had opened the campaign with a 1-1 draw against Derry City.
Dundalk's season started with a 1-1 draw at home to UCD before last Friday's 2-1 loss at Bohemians so Stephen O'Donnell's side are looking for their first win this Friday.
Head To Head
St Pat's and The Lilywhites met four times in the league in 2022 and shared the spoils over all with two draws and a win each.
That St Pat's victory was at Oriel Park last October, a Chris Forrester cracker and a dramatic injury-time winner from Adam O'Reilly secured a huge three points in the race for Europe, Pat's ended 2022 in 4th place, with Dundalk five points ahead of them in third.
The men from Inchicore have won 54 of the 159 league meetings with Dundalk and have a good recent record against them.
In the last 10 meetings in all competitions, The Saints have been victorious four times, including in the 2021 FAI Cup semi-final. That was a 3-1 victory at Richmond Park thanks to goals from Billy King, Matty Smith and Darragh Burns, St Pat's of course went on to win the FAI Cup that season.
Dundalk have won two of the last 10 games against St Pat's with the other four ending all square.
"We're in confident form" - Clancy
Manager Tim Clancy has been helping us look ahead to tomorrow's game and has asked the St Patrick's Athletic supporters to create another brilliant atmosphere at Oriel Park.
"There was very little in the games between ourselves and Dundalk last season, we've obviously got fond memories of our last minute winner up there last year, it's going to be another tough game.
Dundalk lost by the odd goal against Bohemians last week so they'll be looking to bounce back with a win at home, they only got beaten at Oriel Park once last season and that was against us, it will be a tough ask but we want to try to make it two wins in a row up there.
Our lads will be full of confidence heading into our first away game after our performances at home against Derry City and Shelbourne.
We had two huge home crowds and it's great to see that our away allocation for Dundalk has sold out so quickly, the supporters are always a big boost for us, we'll he hoping to give them more to cheer about on Friday night."
Team News:
Goalkeeper Danny Rogers dislocated and fractured his thumb in the warm up last Friday and will be out of action for around six weeks, Harry Brockbank (calf) is a little bit away from a return while Adam Murphy (achilles) is back running and could return to action soon.
Image credit: Sportsfile
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