General
- Thursday August 10th, 2023 @ 12:00
Match Preview: Saints Vs Bohs (11/08/23)
All eyes will be on Inchicore on Friday evening as St Patrick's Athletic host Bohemians in a sold out Dublin derby in front of the RTE TV cameras.
The game will kick-off as 7.45pm as 2nd battles against 3rd in the League of Ireland Premier Division.
All tickets (home and away) are totally sold out, meaning over 5,000 supporters will be at Richmond Park to watch the action.
Those not in attendance can watch live on RTE2 TV or the RTE Player (in Ireland), LOITV will be showing the match outside Ireland, coverage begins at 7.30.
St Pat's come into the weekend off the back of a 2-0 victory at The Showgrounds last Friday, first-half goals from Chris Forrester and Sam Curtis helped them to an important three points against Sligo Rovers.
Forrester scored his 12th league goal of the season from the penalty spot in the 12th minute to put himself as the league’s outright top goal scorer, while Sam Curtis notched a second on his 50th appearance for the club in the 32nd minute, his third of the season.
It was a good night fo the Inchicore club, Captain Joe Redmond made his first start for almost four months after a hamstring injury with 18-year-old Adam Murphy being named RTE Man of the Match.
Adam, who scored our July Goal of the Month against F91 Dudelange, was also confirmed as the St Patrick's Athletic / Manguard Plus Player of the Month for July today (Thursday) and will be presented with his award before tomorrow night's game.
Jon Daly's men come into this Friday’s game just four points off Shamrock Rovers in top spot with just ten league games remaining.
The Saints have 46 points from their 26 league games and have the joint-highest number of goals scored in league play with 49.
Bohemians' last game was a 4-2 win at home to Drogheda United last Friday evening in what was a dramatic game at Dalymount Park.
Declan Devine's side currently sit on 45 points, just one point behind Pat's and five behind the leaders, the race for the title and for the European places is really hotting up!
OPPOSITION WATCH / RECENT MEETINGS
The Saints have won one and lost one of their two league encounters against The Gypsies this season.
The last time out was a 3-2 win in April, with the goals coming from Chris Forrester, Jason McClelland and Mark Doyle in a Dalymount thriller!
The first clash of the campaign was at Richmond Park, Johnny Afolabi and Dean Williams were on target in a 2-0 victory for Bohs.
Friday's match will be the 189th league edition of this famous rivalry, St Pat's have won 73 of the 188 games so far, Bohemians have come out on time 62 times with 53 draws, the teams have traded a whopping 490 goals across those meetings.
It's five wins to three in favour of St Pat's over the last eight league meetings while memories of that famous 2021 FAI Cup final, which St Patrick's Athletic won on penalties at The Aviva, will still be fresh in the minds of Saints' supporters.
REDMOND: "There's no buzz like it, it's great to be back!
Last week's win against Sligo Rovers was Joe Redmond's first time starting a game since sustaining a hamstring tear in Drogheda in April, an injury that kept the 23-year-old out for 16 games.
Joe returned off the bench in the FAI Cup win in Longford two weeks ago.
The former Birmingham City defender put in a brilliant performance at The Showgrounds and was named in the Premier Division Team of the Week alongside Dean Lyness, Sam Curtis and Adam Murphy.
Redmond is delighted to be back out on the pitch and is excited at the prospect of this huge Dublin derby:
"It's great to be back, especially with the win up in The Showgrounds and to get my first 90 minutes.
Getting the news in April that I needed the operation was tough but it's something you must get over quickly in football.
Everyone supported me within the club, the lads have been excellent since I've been gone. They put together a great run of performances and wins, so I was delighted to see that while watching from the stands. We've got a great group.
The fans have been brilliant. The travelling support up in Sligo and everywhere we've gone this season has been incredible. We can't thank them enough.
I'm really looking forward to the game on Friday, we've prepared well for it, and I can't wait to be back in Richmond.
These games always have a crazy atmosphere but when you're on the pitch you must be level-headed and not get caught up in the occasion too much.
It's going to be a difficult game, we know how good they've been doing, but we've been on a good run as well."
Watch Joe's full 10 minute interview on our YouTube channel below.
DALY: "There's belief in the squad"
Manager Jon Daly has overseen an outstanding league run that has led the Saints to being just four points off top spot in the league.
Daly is aware of the threat that the Gypsies carry but is also relishing the opportunity of playing in the Dublin derby:
"It's a big game, it always is against Bohs, we've done our homework on them, we know what they're about, they're a very good side. They have some really good attacking players so we're going to have to defend well on Friday night if we're going to get anything out of the game.
There is a belief in our squad. When you have positive results, it breeds confidence. The players are confident going into each game. We're focusing on one game at a time and taking it from there.
It was brilliant to get Joe Redmond back. Any team would miss someone like Joe.
Numerous players have said that it's great to have him back. You can sense that in the group.
He's a very good player and having someone like that in your backline is always going to help you, so it’s great to have him now for the run-in."
Jon spoke to the media at our pre-match press conference on Wednesday, you can watch that in full on our Youtube.
TEAM NEWS
Tom Grivosti (knee) is the only absentee.
TICKETS
The match is completely sold out.
TV / LIVE STREAM
Watch live on RTE2 TV or the RTE Player (in Ireland), LOITV will be showing the match outside Ireland, coverage begins at 7.30.
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
