General
- Saturday August 31st, 2024 @ 14:03
Match Preview: Saints V Drogheda United
The Saints return to Richmond Park for the first time in four weeks this Sunday evening as they host Drogheda United in the Premier Division.
Kick-off is on Sunday evening at 6pm in Inchicore.
Home tickets remain on sale via at St Pat's website here, they'll also be available from the stadium tomorrow with another excellent atmosphere expected in Dublin 8. Away tickets are available via Drogheda United's social media
For those St Pat's fans who won't be able to attend, the game will be shown live on LOITV as usual, with Oisin Langan and Colin Hawkins in the commentary box.
The Saints come into this game off the back of a strong performance away to Istanbul Basaksehir, with two second half goals being enough to send the Turks through on aggregate as St Pat's excellent European campaign came to an end at the final qualification hurdle.
Stephen Kenny's men had it to the play-off round after victories over Vaduz of Lichtenstein and Sabah FK of Azerbaijan.
Having landed back in Dublin early on Thursday morning, their focus has quickly flipped back to domestic matters with the last series of Premier Division fixtures beginning tomorrow.
OPPOSITION WATCH
St Pat's have won 67 of their 132 league meetings with the Drogs, there have been 36 draws with United winning 39 times.
Kevin Doherty's side are in excellent form, having scored 16 goals in their last two matches, a number of former Saints could feature at Richmond tomorrow with the likes of Luke Heeney, Ryan Brennan and Darragh Markey, among others having played for tomorrow's hosts.
They are in 9th place in the Premier Division, with 25 points from their 28 games, 7 points behind St Pat's, who are 7th coming into the weekend.
Their last outing was a 7-0 win against Sligo Rovers at Weaver's Park on August 23rd.
James-Taylor, Quinn, Pierrot (2), Kane, Ahui and Foley scored the goals for the Drogs, who won 9-0 in their previous game, against Wilton United in the FAI Cup, securing a 1/4 final tie away to Athlone Town next month.
The last meeting of these two was on June 7th, are they played out a 0-0 draw at Weaver's Park.
These sides last met in Richmond on May 3rd, with Pat's winning 1-0 in Inchicore thanks to an excellent Ruairi Keating goal.
It ended 0-0 in the first game between the teams at the end of March.
The Inchicore men shared the spoils with Drogheda over the course of the 2023 season, with both sides coming out with two league wins each.
KENNY: "We have to dust ourselves down and make sure we are ready"
Manager Stephen Kenny has been looking ahead to Sunday's match:
"We've got a quick turnaround now with Drogheda on Sunday and then Dundalk on Thursday and that's our main focus, we have to dust ourselves down and make sure we are ready.
Clubs sometimes find it challenging coming back off European games, however, the other side of it is that if you can replicate the intensity from those matches and translate it to the league, in terms of having speed in our play etc like we have in recent weeks, it gives you a good chance to win matches.
All of the teams in the league have something to play for and the fight for in the last series. Every match will be difficult between now and the end of the season, we're expecting a tough game against Drogheda United and we'll be ready for it.
It's good to be back at home in front of our own fans, especially after Europe and having not been at Richmond for a while. We know our supporters will get behind the team as they always do, the players will be looking forward to it."
LENNON: "Our performances will give us great confidence"
Midfielder Jamie Lennon spoke ahead of our return to Premier Division action:
"Our performances in recent weeks will give us great confidence heading into the last round of games in the league.
We've been playing at a really good level and we want to continue that, starting on Saturday against Drogheda back at home at Richmond.
We've got points to fight for in the league and that's what we'll do."
LEAVY: "We have lots of important games coming up"
Kian Leavy is also looking forward to the match:
"We've been playing really well over the last few weeks and we want to keep that going in the league.
We are all disappointed after Wednesday night in Istanbul but we can't dwell on it as we have lots of important games coming up, beginning tomorrow against Drogheda United at Richmond.
They are in good form so it will be a difficult game but we'll be ready.
We're hoping for a big home crowd to push us on as we begin the last series aiming to get the 3 points."
TEAM NEWS
Romal Palmer (knee) and Cian Kavanagh (back) will miss the game, while the club also wishes Arran Pettifer well after his move to NIFL side Cliftonville was confirmed on Friday.
TICKETS/TV/UPDATES
Tickets are available here or from Richmond Park tomorrow.
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.
