General
- Sunday April 30th, 2023 @ 13:00
Preview: St Pat's Vs Sligo (01/05/23)
St Patrick's Athletic will be back in Inchicore on Bank Holiday Monday as they host Sligo Rovers in the League of Ireland, kick-off is at the earlier time of 3pm.
It's a 7th home match of the season for The Saints with another capacity home crowd expected at Richmond Park.
St Pat's have won three, lost two and drawn one of their six home matches so far and will be hoping to make home advantage count against the Bit'O'Red.
The Patron Stand has been sold out since the middle of last week, with a small number of home tickets still available for the Main Stand (Section B) and the Camac Terrance, home fans should buy their tickets online HERE to avoid disappointment.
Any remaining tickets will be on sale from Richmond Park up to kick-off while the match will also be live on LOITV, Oisin Langan will be joined in the commentary box by Keith Treacy.
It's a busy weekend for the League of Ireland teams, last Friday's 12th round of games brought us to the one third point of the season.
St Pat's lost 2-0 in Derry after a harsh penalty, converted by Ben Doherty, and a Colm Whelan header from a corner, secured the three points for The Candystripes.
That result means Tim Clancy's side are 5th in the table with 17 points from their 12 games so far, they've won five, drawn two and lost five.
Tomorrow visitors are just one point behind St Pat's, this will be their second trip to Dublin over the Bank Holiday weekend.
John Russell's team were beaten 2-1 by Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght on Friday, Johnny Kenny and Trevor Clarke had put The Hoops 2-1 ahead before a deflected Greg Bolger effort made for an interesting final 15 minutes.
Bolger won the 2013 League of Ireland title, the 2014 FAI Cup and the 2015 EA Sports Cup with St Pat's, and is now a player/coach at Sligo under John Russell, who is also a former St Pat's League winner.
Head To Head
The teams have faced off once already this season, with Sligo winning 2-1 at The Showgrounds in early March.
John Mahon saw red after just 20 minutes but goals from Reece Hutchinson and Fabrice Hartmann put Sligo 2-0 ahead before a Chris Forrester cracker got The Saints back into it, but they couldn't find an equaliser and the points stayed in Sligo.
It was one win each at Richmond Park last season, Colm Horgan and Aidan Keena were on target in a 2-1 win for Sligo last February, Tunde Owolabi got St Pat's goal that night while Serge Atakayi's first league goal in red and white helped Pat's to a 1-0 victory in August.
Tomorrow's game will see the league's top scorer Max Mata (8) face over against his nearest rival in the scoring charts, Chris Forrester (6).
We want to get back to winning ways - Clancy:
Axel Sjoberg made his full debut for St Pat's in Derry on Friday, Manager Tim Clancy said:
"Axel was brilliant, he was full of energy and he dealt really well with probably the best winger in the league in Michael Duffy, I thought Sam Curtis who moved into centre back was excellent too.
The penalty was a massive moment in the game, we don't feel it was foul and it changed the game, then we conceded from a set piece a couple of minutes later which killed the game off.
We've recovered well over the weekend and we've got our plans in place to face Sligo which is going to be another difficult one, we lost to them earlier in the season and we want to reverse that result, we'd like to get back to winning ways in front of our fans.
We had another maximum capacity of away fans to support us in Derry on Friday, they travelled the length of the country, we'll have another big crowd in Richmond tomorrow to support us and we'll be doing all we can to put in a positive performance and pick up the three points.
Team News:
Danny Rogers (thumb), Tom Grivosti (hamstring), Harry Brockbank (calf) are all progressing well with their respective rehabs but all will continue to miss out as will Captain Joe Redmond (hamstring), Tim Clancy's men were in for a recovery and analysis session on Saturday morning and trained on Sunday ahead of Mondays match, the Manager has an otherwise fully fit squad to choose from
Image credit: Sportsfile
Be sure to visit the St Pats store and check out our Umbro League of Ireland merchandise.
