General
- Thursday March 16th, 2023 @ 13:00
Preview: Rovers Vs St Pat's (17/03/23)
Over 1,200 St Patrick's Athletic fans will be among 7,500 supporters at Tallaght Stadium for Friday's big St Patrick's Day Dublin Derby.
Shamrock Rovers and St Pat's will kick-off at 5pm, for those who don't have a golden ticket, the match will be live on LOITV.
Both sides come into the weekend with four points from their opening five games.
St Pat's began the 2023 campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Derry before a 1-0 victory over Shelbourne at Richmond Park, The Saints have lost their last three matches against Dundalk, Sligo Rovers and Bohemians but know a win on Friday night could ignite their season.
Defending Champions Shamrock Rovers have drawn four of their opening five against Sligo Rovers, Drogheda United, Cork City and Shelbourne, their only loss so far this season came at the hands of title rivals Derry City.
The Hoops' last outing in Tallaght was a thrilling 4-4 draw against Cork City, with Sean Hoare grabbing a 97th minute equaliser for Stephen Bradley's side.
Head To Head
This will be the 186th League of Ireland clash between these famous Dublin clubs, Pat's have won 61, Rovers have won 76 with 48 draws, there have been 453 goals scored between them.
St Pat's came out on top in the first game between the sides last season, Chris Forrester got the winner from a Darragh Burns' corner at a sold-out Richmond Park last March before Rovers recovered to win the other three matches against their Dublin rivals, 1-0 in Tallaght in April, 2-1 at Richmond in June and then 4-1 at Tallaght Stadium last October.
The Saints last league win in Tallaght was in March 2016, Billy Dennehy and Christy Fagan got the goals in a 2-0 victory.
we're looking for a response on Friday night - Breslin
Anto Breslin spoke to our YouTube channel ahead of the game, you can watch the full interview above.
"It's a big game, both ourselves and Shamrock Rovers are going through a bit of a rough patch at the minute, there is plenty of quality in both teams, it's always a good game in Tallaght and I know we've sold out the away allocation again, it's going to be a great atmosphere and we're all looking forward to it.
We know what we have to work on to improve, we've been working hard on the training pitch all week and we're looking for a response on Friday night, hopefully we can get that and kick on."
"It's important that we get back to winning ways" - Clancy
Manager Tim Clancy has also been previewing the game:
"Obviously the results over the last three games haven't been good, it's a matter of picking the lads up and getting them going. We've had a good reaction from them in training and we need that on the pitch to get a positive result.
It's important that we get back to winning ways, in the League of Ireland if you can put a string of results together you can climb the table pretty quickly and that' what we'll be looking to do, starting on Friday night."
Team News:
Adam Murphy has returned to full training and is available for selection, Jamie Lennon (suspended), Danny Rogers (thumb), Tom Grivosti (hamstring), Harry Brockbank (calf) are all unavailable for the game.
Image credit: Sportsfile
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