General
- Thursday May 2nd, 2024 @ 13:00
Preview: Saints Vs Drogheda (03/05/24)
St Patrick's Athletic begin a busy month by welcoming Drogheda United to Richmond Park on Friday night, in the first of seven matches in May and three in the next week.
They'll make the trip to The Showgrounds to face Sligo Rovers on Bank Holiday Monday, before a Dublin Derby against Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium on Friday week.
The Saints come into this game off the back of a 1-0 away loss to Shelbourne at Tolka Park last Friday night.
Former St Patrick's Athletic Academy man John Martin won it for The Reds after 33 minutes with a good finish from Matty Smith's pass.
Jon Daly's men have got 15 points from their opening 13 Premier Division games and currently sit in 6th position in the table.
Four of the seven matches this month are at home, Pat's have picked up 10 points from their six games at Richmond Park so far, with three wins, a draw and two defeats, they'll be hoping to make home advantage count over the next few weeks.
OPPOSITION WATCH:
St Pat's have won 66 of their 130 league meetings with the Drogs, there have been 35 draws with United winning 39 times.
This will be Drogheda's 64th visit to St Pat's in the league, the record reads 33 victories for The Saints, 19 wins for The Drogs with the other 11 games finishing all square.
Kevin Doherty's side are in 9th place in the Premier Division, with 11 points from their 12 games.
Their last outing was a 4-0 loss against Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium on Monday evening.
Their most recent meeting with Pat's was earlier this season at Weavers Park, it ended 0-0 draw on March 29th.
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.
The last league encounter was a 2-1 win for Drogs in Inchicore in September.
Warren Davis scored after six minutes before Chris Forrester replied to make it 1-1.
However, Dayle Rooney's late wonder strike hit the top corner to give the Louth side a 2-1 victory.
The last time the sides met at Weavers Park was last June, with the home team coming out as 2-1 victors.
Adam Foley put Drogheda 1-0 to the good before a Chris Forrester penalty levelled things up.
However, former St Pat's player Darragh Markey stole the three points at the death for Drogheda with a 94th minute goal.
Drogheda's first journey to Inchicore last season ended in a 3-0 defeat. Three late Saints goals won it, with one from Jay McClelland and two from Chris Forrester.
The first meeting of 2023 was last April at Weavers Park. Forrester, once again, stole the headlines with two goals in a 3-1 away win.
Dylan Grimes scored for Drogheda, but a stoppage time finish from Eoin Doyle sealed the points.
DALY: "Football can change very quickly, we've got 2 games this weekend where we can go and put things right"
Manager Jon Daly spoke to the media at a press conference at Richmond Park on Wednesday, you can watch it in full on our YouTube channel.
Having been five matches unbeaten before the defeats against Derry City and Shelbourne last week, the 41-year-old knows his side have an opportunity to get back to winning ways across the Bank Holiday weekend:
"Our results aren't good enough. There's a couple of performances I've been really disappointed with but there's been other games where we've been really good and we not taken opportunities and then been punished for slack defending so we want to marry it all together.
It's about making sure you're solid defensively, and when the chances come at the other end, you're ruthless and you take them and that's been the biggest problem for us, we haven't taken our chances and we've let in soft goals and goals at set plays which is unlike us.
Everyone is frustrated and I get that, I share the same frustrations, that's football, and it can change very very quickly.
We've got two games this weekend where we can go and put it right and get ourselves back on the coat tails (of the teams above us).
Teams have shown in the league, if you put a couple of wins together, all of a sudden you can find yourself at the right end of the table and that's what we need to do, it's as simple as that."
MCLAUGHLIN: "Football always gives you the opportunity to put things right"
Ryan McLaughlin made his first league start of the campaign last Friday after recovering from a calf-injury, the 29-year-old is one of the most experienced players in the squad and is sure that his side can turn things around, starting this Friday against a Drogheda United side who have been difficult opponents for The Saints in recent seasons:
"We've got a lot of games coming up this month, which is a good thing.
Results haven't been great in the last couple of games, and it's good that you have such a quick turnaround to put things right.
That starts Friday and Monday, we've two big games coming up, we want two wins out of two.
It only takes one win for everyone to start feeling good again.
We know what we've got in the dressing room, we've got a lot of talent there.
We want to be fighting at the top end of the table and that all starts Friday against Drogheda United."
TEAM NEWS
Manager Jon Daly confirmed that Captain Joe Redmond will miss 3-4 weeks with the ankle injury he picked up in Derry last Monday, but that the problem is "not as bad as first feared", Tom Grivosti is getting closer to a return and could feature for the U20s in the coming weeks, while Daly is hopeful that Ruairi Keating and Mason Melia will recover in time from knocks they picked up recently.
TICKETS / TV / UPDATES
Some home tickets remain available HERE, while the game will also be live on LOITV in the company of Oisin Langan and Keith Treacy.
As always, updates and our live Watch Party 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.
Photo credit: Sportsfile
