St Patrick's Athletic -v- Bray Wanderers
Credit:
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC
Top of the table Saint Patricks Athletic will take on Bray Wanderers in the Airtricity League at Inchicore on Friday night as both clubs return to action after the mid-season break. (kick-off 7.45pm).
The Saints, who are currently 3 points clear of second placed Derry City, will be keen to get back to winning ways following their 2-1 defeat at Dundalk on the 14th of June.
May's player of the month Killian Brennan is unavailable as he begins a two match suspension following his red card at Oriel Park, while Jake Carroll has completed his transfer to Huddersfield Town.
Pats manager Liam Buckley told the his club's website that he is expecting a tough challenge from Bray on Friday night “The break was good to give some of our lads time off and the squad is all back in training now and look rested and ready to go again. We’ll need to be at it on Friday as Bray will be tough opponents.”
“We’d a tight game in their place earlier in the season and since then they’ve been going well lately. Jason Byrne has been banging the goals in and they had good wins recently against UCD, Drogheda and Cork. We know they’ll test us and pose us problems, so we just have to apply ourselves as best we can and hopefully we’ll get a result.”
BRAY WANDERERS
Ninth place Bray Wanderers will be hoping to return to winning ways after losing their last game in the league 3-2 at home to Derry City. Inform Jason Byrne, who is his side's leading scorer with 12 goals, may well pose the most serious threat to the home side on Friday night. Byrne was sent off against Pats at Inchicore last season.
Bray have a full squad to pick from for their first game back after the mid season break. Club captain Danny O'Connor, his brother Kevin, Shane O'Neill and Eoin Hyland are all available for selection for the visitors.
Bray Wanderers director of football Pat Devlin told his club's website that he is looking forward to the second half of the season "I am happy with our performances especially in the final weeks before the break. We have scored goals but then we have also conceded some"
"We now need to move forward from here, we have a tough programme ahead of us and we hope to get more points on the board from the first phase, we need to push forward and we hope to strengthen the squad in the window. We are looking forward to the remainder of the season".
Referee: Alan Kelly.
MATCH STATS
Friday night's clash will be the 77th meeting between the sides in all competitions.
Saint Patricks Athletic won the previous encounter between the two sides in the league this season 1-0 in April.
Bray Wanderers have kept just one clean sheet against St Pats in 20 League meetings between the sides.
BETTING
Saint Patricks Athletic 1/3, Draw 7/2, Bray Wanderers 8/1.
PREDICTION
Saint Patricks Athletic 3-1 Bray Wanderers.
Saint Patricks Athletic
Injured: None.
Doubtful: None.
Suspended: Killian Brennan.
Bray Wanderers
Injured: None.
Doubtful: None.
Suspended: None.
