Cork City -v- St. Patrick's Athletic

CORK CITY

Cork City bring the curtain down on an eventful campaign on Friday night when they welcome the newly crowned league champions St Patrick’s Athletic to the Cross.

Having suffered an indifferent (and at times lacklustre) first half of the season, the Rebel Army dispensed of the services of former manager Tommy Dunne and arrested the worrying trend of conceding late goals.

Initially with Stuart Ashton in charge, and in recent times Paul O’Brien, the ship was steadied and Cork City find themselves with the once unimaginable possibility of a top half finish in their own hands.

To achieve this, they will have to equal or better the result of Limerick against Derry, and they will be looking to (probably) departing marksman Ciarán Kilduff to continue his hot streak.

Speaking to CorkCityFC.ie ahead of the game, Technical Director Paul O’Brien was looking for his team to bounce back from a 4-0 trouncing at the hands of Dundalk.

 “Over the last couple of weeks we have been on a great run of form. Unfortunately last week against Dundalk didn’t match our recent good form, but having said that, I think the players showed a lot of character and kept going for the ninety minutes.

“When you look at St. Pats’ form over the course of the whole season, there’s no doubt that they deserved to win the league. They were the most consistent team, and towards the end of the season they held firm to seal the title.”

“When I came in a few weeks ago, we said we wanted to get as many points as possible by the end of the season. Hopefully we can get a result on Friday to stay in front of the team behind us, and I think we are capable of doing that.”

In terms of availability, O’Brien has Darren Dennehy available for selection again after a long absence, but there are doubts over John Dunleavy and Brian Lenihan.

Definitely out is Garry Buckley as he sees his season prematurely ended through suspension.

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC

With the league wrapped up and their medals already hanging from their necks, you might think that St Patrick’s Athletic are already in holiday mood after a long hard fought season.

Speaking to StPatsFC.com however, manager Liam Buckley insists this will not be the case as he looks to finish on a high and give the expected large travelling fan base something to cheer about.

“We’re all looking forward to the game as it’s the climax of what has been a great year for us.

“Everyone connected with the club, the players and management, all our staff and volunteers, the supporters – they’ve all been fantastic over the past 10 months. So from that end of things, we’ll be looking to finish the season as we started, and that’s with a win.”

“Cork have been going well lately and scoring goals so it’ll be a tough game. Turner’s Cross is a really good venue to play in and atmosphere wise, it’s one of the best grounds in the country. But we’re hoping to wrap up the season with a result for our fans who I know are making the trip south in huge numbers.”

A win would see the Saints finish on their highest ever points total (74 points), and extend their unbeaten run to fifteen games.

Having recorded two wins against the Rebel Army already this season, full back Ger O’Brien told StPatsFC.com that these games were big moments in their league winning season.

“That win down in Cork earlier in the season was definitely one of our most impressive performances this year. It really did help us continue a good run of form at the time and kept our away form going as well. It came at a time when we had a lot of tough games, as we had Drogheda away a few days later and Shamrock Rovers the following week.

 “You can’t take that will to win and to continue to get results out of people. We know we’ve the most goals scored and the least conceded so far so we’ll be aiming for it to be that way come full-time on Friday,.

“We’ll be aiming to finish on a high as much for the supporters as ourselves. We owe it to them to do that as we know they’re travelling down in huge numbers, Liam has been drilling that into us all week so complacency won’t be an issue for us.”

Going into this season bookend, Liam Buckley has virtually a full compliment at his disposal – only Stephen Maher misses out as he continues to recover from a broken leg.

Referee: Alan Kelly.

MATCH STATS

Ian Bermingham, Ger O’Brien and Conan Byrne have featured in every league game for St Pats this season. Bermingham and O’Brien have played every minute.

If Cork City do not win by five goals, they will finish a season with negative goal difference for only the second time in the last twenty five years (2013 inclusive). The last time they did this was in the 1995/1996 season when they finished with a goal difference of minus four. Only the bottom three clubs have conceded more goals than the Rebel Army this season.

Cork City striker Ciarán Kilduff has scored more league goals than any member of the St Patrick’s Athletic title winning squad.

BETTING

Cork City 15/8, Draw 12/5, UCD 5/4.

PREDICTION

Cork City 2 St Patrick’s Athletic 2

Cork City

Injured: None.
Doubftul: Johnny Dunleavy (ankle), Brian Lenihan (knee).
Suspended: Garry Buckley (8 yellow cards).

St Patrick’s Athletic

Injured: Stephen Maher (broken leg).
Suspended: None.