General
- Thursday June 4th, 2015 @ 14:13
Team News: Derry City Vs St Pat's Ath (A) 7.45pm
St Patrick's Athletic travel north on Friday evening as the Saints face Derry City in the Brandywell in the SSE Airtricity League (kick-off 7.45pm).
Liam Buckley's side will be looking for a repeat of their win over the Candystripes during the season which saw Greg Bolger score a contender for goal of the season and Hawaii born midfielder Morgan Langley score his first goal for the club in a 2-0 win.
Speaking to stpatsfc.com, Pat's manager Buckley reflected on the Saints' 2-1 win against Shamrock Rovers last weekend in the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup and expressed his wish that his side would look to push on from the great victory.
"Last week was a great result for the team. The lads worked very hard and fully deserved their win and it's great that we're into the next round of the cup. But we've got to translate that performance now back into our league form."
"We've been working this week on trying to replicate that performance as if we can get that right, we can hopefully get the points. Derry are a very strong team at home in the Brandywell and generally there's very little between the sides when we play one another, so we're expecting a very tough game."
In team news, Conan Byrne is set to miss his first league game for the Saints since joining the club in 2013 with a hamstring injury, ending a run of 80 consecutive league appearances. Kenny Browne misses out through suspension, but the Saints look set to welcome skipper Ger O'Brien back into contention after coming through training this week with no affects from his hamstring injury.
Reflecting on last week's win against the Hoops, O'Brien told stpatsfc.com that spirits in the camp are high as the Saints bid to defend the FAI Cup remain on course, however the Saints' captain said the side were focused on the challenge of facing Derry.
"The lads played really well last Friday. We could have been more than two up before the end, and then when Rovers scored, we did well to see it out and get the win. We know we need to be producing that though every week so that's the aim on Friday; play well on Friday and hopefully get the win."
O'Brien also paid tribute to Saints' supporter and U16 schoolboy manager Niall 'Hano' Hannigan who passed away this week, passing on condolences from the whole Saints' squad to the Hannigan family.
"It's been a very sad week for the club with the news of Hano passing away. All the squad were deeply saddened to hear the news, just like all of our supporters and the whole St Pat's community so are thoughts are with his family."
