General
- Thursday February 29th, 2024 @ 13:00
Preview: Derry Vs Saints (01/03/24)
The Saints will be making the journey north to face Derry City this Friday for their third game of the 2024 League of Ireland Premier Division.
Kick-off is at 7.45pm at The Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, with a limited number of away tickets available HERE as a strong contingent from Inchicore will be there to support Jon Daly's men.
The game will also be live on RTE2 TV and the RTE Player in Ireland and on LOITV for those further afield.
Friday night will see St Patrick's Athletic wear their new green third kit for the first time, it's already one of the club's most popular ever kits and has been flying off the selves in the Super Saints Store and online.
The Saints come into this game off the back of a 1-0 loss to Bohemians at Richmond Park last Friday evening.
Despite a good performance on the team's return to Richmond, a Jordan Flores penalty in the 85th minute gave Declan Devine's side all three points.
Pat's began their 2024 campaign away to Galway United, with a Jamie Lennon goal securing a 1-0 victory.
OPPOSITION WATCH
Tomorrow night will see the 2022 FAI Cup winners host the 2023 holders as Derry City, who finished 2nd last season, face a St Pat's side that ended 2023 in 3rd spot, three points behind The Candystripes.
Ruaidhri Higgins' team started the new campaign with four points from their opening two games, a win at home to Drogheda United followed by a draw in Sligo.
Their last outing was a scoreless draw at The Showgrounds on Saturday.
The Saints won one, drew one, and lost two of their four league encounters against Derry City last season.
Of course, the main fixture memory of 2023 was in the Sports Direct FAI Cup, with Jon Daly’s men beating Derry on penalties to progress to the 1/4 finals, before going on the lift the trophy at Aviva Stadium.
The FAI Cup game was in the Brandywell in August, after a game that ended 0-0, the Saints won 4-3 on penalties.
Mason Melia, then 15 years old, stepped up to coolly and confidently dispatch the winner.
The last time out in the Premier Division was a 3-0 loss to Derry in the Brandywell on the last day of the 2023 league campaign as Pat's prepared for the FAI Cup final the following week.
Brandon Kavanagh opened the scoring that day against the Inchicore outfit that he would later go on to sign for.
Will Patching and Jordan McEneff got the other two for the home side.
St Pat's got a 4-1 win against Friday’s opposition in Richmond Park on June 5th, 2023.
Jay McGrath opened the scoring in the 36th minute with a thumping low effort to put his side 1-0 up at half-time.
Eoin Doyle got a second before Chris Forrester and Mark Doyle added their names to the scoresheet.
The other two games finished in a 2-0 defeat in the Brandywell in April and a 1-1 draw in Richmond in February, with club captain Joe Redmond getting an 89th minute equaliser for his side in the latter.
KAVANAGH: "It's going to be a cracking game"
Winter recruit Brandon Kavanagh joined Pat's from Derry over the winter, having been with The Candystripes for two seasons, and won an FAI Cup under Ruaidhri Higgins, the Crumlin man knows the threat that they possess:
"We're really looking forward to it. It's going to be a cracking game.
It's live on TV so there’s going to be people tuning into it and at the stadium.
We're hoping to get back to winning ways because the result last Friday against Bohs didn't go the way we wanted it to.
There's going to be two really good teams on the pitch with a lot of talent.
It's going to be a tight game and The Brandywell is going to be packed out, so it's something we can really look forward to."
DALY: "We need to go into the game with confidence"
With another match to come in Waterford on Monday, it's set to be a busy weekend for Jon Daly and his squad, the Manager is keen to stress the importance of focusing on the task in hand tomorrow night.
"We need to go into the game with optimism and confidence and make sure that we acquit ourselves really well and give ourselves the best chance of coming away with three points.
Derry are one of the few teams in the league that haven't had much upheaval.
They've got some fantastic players within their squad that will pose a challenge to us.
We always bring a good travelling support, and they have a good home support up there, so the atmosphere will be very good and it's on TV too.
It's one that myself, the staff and the players are looking forward to."
TEAM NEWS:
Tom Grivosti (knee and hamstring) continues to recover from his injury.
TICKETS / TV / UPDATES
Kick-off is at 7.45pm, with a limited number of away tickets available HERE as a strong contingent from Inchicore will be there to support Jon Daly's men.
The game will also be live on RTE2 TV and the RTE Player in Ireland and on LOITV for those further afield.
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 and our new Whatsapp channel.
