• General

  • Thursday March 27th, 2025 @ 15:30

Match Preview: Waterford FC Vs Saints (28/03/25)

St Patrick's Athletic return to action after the international break with a trip to face Waterford FC.

THE MATCH

  • The RSC will host The Blues and The Saints are the sides face off for the first time in 2025.
  • After the initial away allocation sold out, a small number of extra tickets for St Pat's supporters remain available via the Waterford FC website.
  • LOITV will be screening the game, KO is at 7.45pm.



    SAINTS SCENE
  • St Patrick's Athletic come into the weekend in good form, having won three of their last four league matches.
  • Home wins against Sligo Rovers (4-3) and Derry City (2-0) was followed by a narrow 1-0 defeat at Shamrock Rovers, before a 3-0 victory at home to Bohemians before the break.
  • St Pat's are in 2nd place in the Premier Division table, a point behind leaders Drogheda United.
  • Manager Stephen Kenny welcomes Ryan McLaughlin and Jamie Lennon back to the squad after injury.







    LAST TIME OUT
  • Player of the Match Chris Forrester, Mason Melia and Jason McClelland got the goals in a big 3-0 win against Bohemians at Richmond Park.
  • The attendance of 5,338 that night is the highest crowd for a game at Richmond Park in over 20 years, this is due to the slightly increased capacity due to the addition of safe standing in part of the Main Stand.



    MOST RECENT MEETING:
  • 20/09/24 - The Saints beat Waterford 3-0 at Richmond Park last September, Zack Elbouzedi, Mason Melia and Aidan Keena were on target.







    STAT ATTACK:
  • The other game in Inchicore was a 1-1 draw in April 2024.
  • St Pat's lost on both of their visits to the RSC last season, 3-1 in March and 1-0 in July.
  • These sides have faced off in the League of Ireland on 193 occasions, Pat's have 54 wins, Waterford have 48 victories with 24 draws.



    DID YOU KNOW:
  • If Sean Hoare features tomorrow night, it will be his second league debut and his 100th league appearance for the club.
  • Zack Elbouzedi and Barry Baggley are former Waterford players, Baggley captained The Blues to promotion to the Premier Division via the play-offs in 2023.
  • It was a great week for St Pat's on the international front, Mason Melia became the youngest goalscorer ever for the Ireland U21s, with former Saints Darius Lipsiuc and Adam Murphy also featuring for Jim Crawford's side.
  • James Abankwah received his first senior international call up while Billy Hayes and Billy Canny helped Ireland U17s to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar later this year.







    OPPOSITION WATCH:
  • Waterford have won three and lost three of their first six games. They've lost their last two, 0-3 at home to Bohemians and 1-0 away to Galway before the break.
  • Ryan Burke, Ben McCormack, Tommy Lonergan and Matty Smith are former St Patrick's Athletic players.
  • Manager Keith Long played for St Pat's from 1996 to 2000 and took over at the RSC in March 2023 and led The Blues to promotion, beating Cork City in the play-off final at Tallaght Stadium.







    FROM THE DUG OUT:
  • Manager Stephen Kenny said: "We're looking forward to the game, we finished strongly before the break against Bohemians. Waterford have had a very good home record at the RSC in recent years and they've had a good start of the season, Waterford are a goal threat, and we've been scoring goals in recent weeks so we're expecting a tough game. We've got a great traveling support, it's been tremendous over recent weeks and I definitely feel that can help us. We'll have to roll our sleeves up and really work hard to earn anything we get."



    PLAYER VIEW:
    Tom Grivosti: "Waterford have started the season well and the RSC is always a tough place to go, we had a good result ourselves before the break (against Bohemians) so we're raring to get back at it and try to continue our positive run and back up our result against Bohemians in Waterford tomorrow night. We've got some good work in during the break so we're ready to go. We've had a good feel for the season over the first six games, we didn't start how we wanted in the first two games but we've had a couple of good results of late and we're hoping that we can build on that."







    TEAM NEWS:
  • Jamie Lennon and Ryan McLaughlin both return to the matchday squad after injury.
  • Midfielder Romal Palmer underwent surgery on a hamstring injury before the break and will face an unspecified period on the sidelines.
  • Kian Leavy is progressing well in his recovery from an ankle operation.



    TICKETS AND TV:
  • Some of the additional away tickets remain on sale via the Waterford website.
  • The game will be live on LOITV.



    Image credit: Sportsfile

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    Next Fixture

    vs GALWAY UNITED

    Date: May 1st (7:45pm)
    Competition: League
    Venue: Eamonn Deacy Park
     

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    Team Pld Pts
    St Patrick's Athletic1326
    Shamrock Rovers1325
    Dundalk1321
    Bohemian FC1320
    Derry City1317
    Galway United1215
    Sligo Rovers1314
    Shelbourne1213
    Drogheda United1213
    Waterford FC125

    St Patrick's Athletic FC

    Founded in 1929 the 'Saints' play in the Premier Division of the SSE Airtricity League at Richmond Park, in Inchicore Dublin 8, Ireland.

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