General
- Thursday May 11th, 2023 @ 12:45
Preview: St Pat's Vs Drogheda (12/05/23)
Richmond Park is ready for more League of Ireland action on Friday night as St Patrick's Athletic welcome Drogheda United.
The Main Stand is totally sold out with less than 150 tickets left for the Patron Stand and some availability on the Camac Terrace, we advise all home supporters to get their tickets online now to avoid missing out, TICKETS HERE
This match will also be live on LOITV, former Super Saint Colin Hawkins will accompany Oisin Langan in the commentary box, coverage begins at 7.30pm with kick-off at 7.45pm.
Jon Daly won his first match as Interim Manager last Friday, Conor Carty's first goal for the club, a Jake Mulraney cracker, and Adam Murphy's first senior goal, which was served on a plate by Chris Forrester, helped Pat's to a 3-2 victory in Cork and their first win in four league matches.
That result moved them to 6th in the Premier Division table, they've accumulated 20 points from their 14 games so far, winning six, losing six and drawing twice.
The Inchicore men are just two points behind 4th placed Dundalk and eight points behind leaders Bohemians.
Head To Head
St Patrick's Athletic and Drogheda United have faced off once already this campaign, Pat's were 3-1 winners at Weavers Park just a month ago, Chris Forrester scored on the double, one from the penalty spot, with Eoin Doyle wrapping things up with a clever finish as Colin McCabe's pass fell to him 35 yards out.
Drogs' last outing was a 1-0 defeat at home to Derry City last Friday, Adam O'Reilly got the only goal but Kevin Doherty's side will sell they should have got a point, but for the heroics of City stopper Brian Maher, who made two fantastic saves in the closing minutes.
The Louth men have won three, drawn five and lost six of their matches so far.
Drogheda's last visit to Inchicore ended in a 3-0 defeat last July, Billy King, Eoin and Mark Doyle scored for St Pat's, the other Richmond meeting in 2022 ended all square with Dayle Rooney and Darragh Burns exchanging strikes.
"Our supporters have been great this season home and away - Daly:
Interim Manager Jon Daly spoke to the media on Wednesday, he's hoping for another red hot Richmond Park atmosphere to cheer his side on:
"We've had support in good numbers at home, and they've followed us really well away from home too. We had great numbers in Cork last Friday and up in Derry the week before.
To come out on the right side of a five goal thriller at Turners Cross last week was fantastic and I thought the win was well warranted, I thought we played fantastically well.
It was great for Adam Murphy coming on to get his first professional goal and for Conor Carty to score his first for the club too to get off the Mark and Jake had a great finish too.
We've quickly turned our attention towards Drogheda and we've been training towards that all week, if we can play to the levels we know we can hit then we give ourselves the best chance of winning the game."
Watch Jon's full interview as well as our chat with Mark Doyle on our YouTube channel.
Mark Doyle joined St Pat's from Drogheda United in December 2021 ahead of the 2022 season.
The 24-year-old spent the previous six seasons with Drogheda, scoring 50 goals for the club and helping them to promotion and the First Division title in 2020.
Doyle scored twice for St Pat's against Drogs last season, but how is he feeling about facing his old club?
"I've faced Drogheda five times now since leaving so it's not really a thing any more, I've scored a couple against them since I left which always seems to be the way when you play against your old team.
There has also been a lot of changes at Drogheda since I've been there so all my focus and all our focus is on the game tomorrow.
They are a difficult team to play against, they are well organised and Kevin Doherty has them set up really well, they've been doing really well this season and have got a few big results already.
We have to focus and what we've been working on this week and hopefully we can win the game."
Team News:
Eoin Doyle will serve the second of his two game ban after his red card against Sligo Rovers, while Daly confirmed this week that Captain Joe Redmond (hamstring) faces "a couple of months" on the sidelines following surgery last month.
Danny Rogers (thumb) has returned to training while Tom Grivosti (hamstring) and Harry Brockbank (calf) could be back in the squad for Friday's game, Axel Sjoberg (knock) missed the match in Cork last Friday but is pushing for a return tomorrow night.
Image credit: Sportsfile
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