PREVIEW: St Pats vs Glentoran
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Saint Patrick’s Athletic get their Setanta Sports Cup campaign underway this evening against Belfast-based Glentoran FC.
Following a lunchtime pitch inspection, the game was given the green light. The match kicks off at 7.45pm this evening at Richmond Park and it will mark the first ever visit of the Belfast team to Inchicore.
A confidence boosting 3-1 victory against Sligo Rovers at the weekend leaves Pat’s perfectly placed to sabotage the Glens ‘Welcome to Dublin’ party. However, Glentoran will be confident of causing an upset off the back of a 2-1 victory against Coleraine on Saturday that puts them 5 points off the top of the Carnegie Irish League. Glens have a full squad for tonight’s game and will be looking to top marksman Gary Hmailton to add to his tally of 25 goals this season.
Pat’s boss Johnny McDonnell indicated that their will be a few changes to the 11 that that started on Friday. “We might be able to rest some lads tonight. Stephen Paisley was suspended the last night and Glen Fitzpatrick didn’t play so we could be seeing them tonight. We have no real long term injury worries, just a few bumps and bruises.” We could also see Dessie Byrne start his first competitive game for the Saints after coming on last Friday.
Glentoran didn’t make it out of the group stages last year and will be looking to prove a point in this years competition. Pat’s will be hoping to emulate the success of Drogheda United last year and Cork City the year before, in taking the Cup back to the South.
