General
- Saturday July 20th, 2024 @ 15:28
FAI Cup Preview: Derry City V Saints (21/07/2024)
The Saints face an away trip to Derry City as they begin the defence of their Sports Direct FAI Cup title on Sunday.
Kick-off is is 6pm at the Ryan McBride Brandywell.
The away allocation of tickets is almost completely sold out for the game, with another fantastic atmosphere expected in the away end in Derry.
For those St Pat's fans who won't be able to attend, the game will be shown live on LOITV.
The Saints come into this game off the back of a break that lasted over two weeks with no competitive game, they did however play friendly matches last weekend against NIFL sides Ballymena United and Cliftonville, both at Richmond Park.
Brandon Kavanagh scored the only goal in the 1-0 victory against Ballymena on Saturday before a Mason Melia hat-trick helped the team to a 3-0 win against Irish Cup winners Cliftonville.
The last league outing for Stephen Kenny's side was on July 4th against Waterford at the RSC, a game that they lost 1-0, with former Saint Ben McCormack scoring the winner.
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, The Saints of course, also won the 2021 FAI Cup.
Derry are currently 2nd in the LOI Premier Division table, with 44 points from their 25 games, and are just three points off Shelbourne at the top of the table.
Their last outing was a 2-1 win over Bruno's Magpies in the UEFA Europa Conference League Qualifying Rounds on Thursday.
Despite this result after extra-time, it meant that Derry went out on aggregate after a 2-0 loss in the first leg.
The last meeting of these sides was on May 17th, with a Paul McMullan goal securing a 1-0 win at Richmond Park for Derry.
On April 22nd, Derry won 3-1 at the Brandywell with two goals from Danny Mullen and a Patrick Hoban strike, despite a stunning finish from Conor Keeley.
On the first meeting of the season between these sides in March, Ruairi Keating scored a stunning opener before Hoban and a late Danny Mullen goal stole all three points at the death for Derry.
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 St Pat's beating Derry on penalties to progress to the 1/4 finals, before going on the lift the trophy at The 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.
Pat's fans will also have fond memories of the 2014 FAI Cup final win against Derry City at The Aviva as a Christy Fagan double ended a 53-year wait for the trophy.
KENNY: "We're looking forward to the challenge"
Stephen Kenny is relishing at the prospect of a trip to Derry to begin the FAI Cup defence:
"It's one of the toughest draws you could probably get. Derry are right up there challenging Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers for the league title.
They have an exceptional squad and it'll be a tough game but one that we're making sure we're prepared for.
I thought a lot of the aspects of our performances in recent weeks have been good.
It's a busy week for us and we're just focused on the Derry game first to make sure that we're ready."
Watch Stephen's full interview on our Youtube channel.
TEAM NEWS
Ryan McLaughlin and Arran Pettifer are unavailable for the match due to injury.
TICKETS/TV/UPDATES
There are a limited number of away tickets available HERE.
The game will be live on LOITV.
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 WhatsApp.
