League Preview: Longford Town -v- St Patrick's Athletic

Longford Town

Longford Town manager Tony Cousins was very happy with his side's recent form. “This week, seven points from nine, it's a very good return” Cousins told Extratime.ie after Town's victory over Galway United last Friday.

“We didn't panic when we went 1-0 down” he remarked as he continued to say that his players are well drilled to “keep going until the end of the game”. Cousins was impressed by his side's performance against last season's Airtricity League First Division rivals. In the second half The Tribesmen were defending with everything and Cousins felt that even though Town “hammered the goal down” that it looked like a winning goal might not come.

Town will need to keep that level of confidence in playing their game and focus for 90 minutes if they are to get a result from St. Patrick's Athletic tonight. Unfortunately for Town, The Saints will be a stronger side than they have played in recent weeks.

St Patrick's Athletic

Saint Patrick's Athletic midfielder Conan Byrne has played 99 games since joining Pat's at the start of the 2013 season and will likely make it a century tonight. Byrne has scored an impressive 39 goals from midfield for the Saints

St. Pat's will hope to take all three points back to Dublin tonight to break up their early season away form. Losing two away games and only bringing home three points from bottom of the table Limerick.

Pat's manager Liam Buckley believes his team have what it takes to win tonight. "Longford have shown they are a good side in their start to the league so far, so we know Saturday will be a tough game. The lads have been working well in training this week though so we're lookng forward to the game and hoping to get three points." Buckley told stpatsfc.com.

Referee: Neil Doyle

MATCH STATS

In their most recent meeting, the two sides played in last season's Leinster Senior Cup, with The Saints beating Town 2-1 at the City Calling Stadium.

So far this season both teams have had similar results, losses against Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers and beating Bray Wanderers. Both teams have won two games in a row and will hope to continue that form tonight.

The teams have met 28 times in the league with Longford winning 11 games and Pat's taking all of the points on 9 occasions. Their most recent league meetings were in 2007 with Pat's winning the first two games and Town winning the third meeting 2-1.

BETTING

Longford Town 3/1; Draw 12/5; St Patrick’s Athletic 10/11.

PREDICTION

Longford Town 1-2 St Patrick’s Athletic

Longford Town

Injured: Unknown

Doubtful: Unknown

Suspended: Pat Flynn

St Patrick’s Athletic

Injured: Jason McGuinness (hamstring), Brendan Clarke (ankle)

Doubtful: None

Suspended: Killian Brennan