League Preview: Derry City -v- St Patrick's Athletic

DERRY CITY 

Derry will welcome Liam Buckley’s side to the Brandywell on Friday night in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division (7:45pm). Derry will be intent on building on their cup win over Edenderry last Sunday to get the win against St. Pat’s come Friday night. The club have been unlucky this season constantly being hampered by injuries and suspensions. 

Despite possibly facing St. Pat’s without a few of his key players, the Derry boss Peter Hutton remains optimistic coming into the contest.

"St Pat's are a vastly experienced team, brimming with quality throughout and they'll certainly impose a huge challenge for us on Friday night; but it's a challenge that the boys have to look forward too.

"It's a way of testing themselves again, yes we could possibly be down six key players, but you just have to roll the sleeves up and get on with it."

Peter Hutton yet again has a headache when coming to selecting his team. Mark Timlin, who shone in the cup game last week will miss out due to suspension and joining him on the suspension list is Seanan Clucas who is out due to his collection of 5 yellow cards. To add to this, long term injured Stephen Dooley remains out as well as Ryan McBride who will again miss out this week. The Derry camp will also be waiting on the fitness of Philip Lowry.

ST. PATRICK’S ATHLETIC 

The Saints make the trip north to the Brandywell off the back of a superb 2-1 FAI Cup win against Shamrock Rovers last time out and will be confident that they can get something from the game. 

Speaking of the game against the Hoops, Saints boss Liam Buckley had this to say:

“Last week was a great result for the team. The lads worked very hard and fully deserved their win and it’s great that we’re into the next round of the cup. But we’ve got to translate that performance now back into our league form.” 

In anticipation of the game against the Candystripes, Buckley continued: 

“We’ve been working this week on trying to replicate that performance as if we can get that right, we can hopefully get the points. Derry are a very strong team at home in the Brandywell and generally there’s very little between the sides when we play one another, so we’re expecting a very tough game.”

St. Pat’s skipper Ger O’Brien, who did in fact play for Derry back in 2009, had the following to say looking forward to the game:

“The lads played really well last Friday. We could have been more than two up before the end, and then when Rovers scored, we did well to see it out and get the win.  We know we need to be producing that though every week so that’s the aim on Friday; play well on Friday and hopefully get the win.”

In terms of team news, Liam Buckley will welcome back captain Ger O’Brien to the Dublin club’s selection panel however will be without Conan Byrne who misses his first game since 2013 as well as Kenny Browne who is suspended for the clash. 

Referee: Derek Tomney

MATCH STATS

St. Pat’s are unbeaten against the Brandywell side in the last five games which includes the 2-0 win in last year’s FAI cup final.

Derry have failed to win a Premier League game since their 2-0 away win against Limerick in late April with the Brandywell only accumulating 2 points in that period. 

St. Pat’s have won twice as many games as Derry this season in the league (6:3) and currently sit three places and eight points above their Brandywell counterparts. 

BETTING

Derry City 11/4; Draw 9/4; St. Patrick’s Athletic Evens.

PREDICTION

Derry City 1-2 St. Patrick’s Athletic 

Derry City

Injured: Stephen Dooley, Ryan McBride.

Doubtful: Philip Lowry.

Suspended: Seanan Clucas, Mark Timlin.

St. Patrick’s Athletic 

Injured: Conan Byrne.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: Kenny Browne.