General
- Thursday August 3rd, 2023 @ 16:30
Match Preview: Saints Vs Sligo Rovers
The Saints return to Premier Division action this Friday as they make a trip west to take on Sligo Rovers.
The game will kick-off at 7.45pm at The Showgrounds with St Pat's looking to continue their excellent league form.
Another big away crowd is expected, away tickets for Saints supporters remain on sale via the Sligo Rovers website HERE
For those fans who are not able to travel to Sligo, the game will be live on RTÉ2 and the RTE Player, with coverage beginning at 7.35pm.
The Saints currently sit second, just four points off the summit of the table with 11 games to play, Jon Daly's side have amassed 43 points from the 25 games thus far, scoring 47 times, which is the joint best return in the league alongside leaders Shamrock Rovers.
With the two European games against F91 Dudelange, and an FAI Cup win away to Longford Town, in which Captain Joe Redmond returned from injury, St Pat's have not played in the Premier Division since a 1-1 draw against Cork City at Richmond Park on July 7th.
OPPOSITION WATCH / RECENT MEETINGS
Sligo Rovers currently sit in 7th spot in the table with 30 points from their 25 games.
Their last outing was at 2-2 draw away to Drogheda United last weekend.
The Bit'O'Red have won both meetings so far this season, 2-1 at The Showgrounds and 1-0 at Richmond Park, something St Pat's will be hoping to reverse tomorrow night.
Since the sides last met on May 1st, the Inchicore men have won eight of their twelve league matches, with two draws and just two defeats in this time.
CONOR CARTY: "I'm really enjoying it, we want to keep our good run going!"
The Saints have been in sensational goalscoring form this season and young forward Conor Carty has been an important member of the side with four goals in 24 league appearances.
The 21-year-old has been applauded by fans for his pressing and work rate, among other things, and he reinstated the need for himself and his teammates to maintain that high work ethic in Sligo:
"We know it's going to be a tough game. The last two times we've faced them they've given us a really hard game. It's one we're looking forward to. We want to get back at them and beat them but we know we'll need to play well to do that as they are a good side.
I'm really enjoying playing in front of all the fans every week, both home and away, I've loved every minute of it. They travel in numbers everywhere we go and I'm sure they'll be the same tomorrow night.
Jon Daly and the coaching staff and along with squad have all been driving each other's standards and it's been coming through to our games as well, so it's really good."
Jon Daly: "We're looking forward to getting back to action!"
Manager Jon Daly spoke to our website ahead of the game:
"We're looking forward to the match and to getting back to domestic action tomorrow night after a break last weekend.
Our league form has been really good and we’ll be aiming to continue our positive performances over the coming weeks, starting at The Showgrounds.
Sligo Rovers are always a difficult team to play against, they have some very good players and they've beaten us in both matches so far this season so hopefully we can reverse that trend.
From our end, the players have trained very well over the last couple of weeks and we had a good workout in a friendly game against Cliftonville last week, where we were able to get minutes into most of the players, we have good completion for places, so it's all systems go for tomorrow.
It should be a good game, we know we’ll have another big travelling away support to cheer on the lads which is much appreciated, Sligo I'm sure will have a big support too, hopefully our performance leads to a positive result."
TEAM NEWS:
The injury list remains unchanged from the before the break.
TICKETS:
There will be no tickets on sale at the door of The Showgrounds, another big away crowd is expected, away tickets for Saints supporters remain on sale via the Sligo Rovers website HERE
UPDATES:
As always, updates can be found on the Official St Pat's FC App �" available now on both the App Store and Play Store.
Updates will also be available across all the club’s social media channels.
Photo credit: Sportsfile
