League Preview: UCD - v - Shelbourne

UCD

The Students will take on the challenge of Shelbourne in a mouth-watering Dublin derby in the SSE Airtricity First Division at the UCD Bowl on Friday evening (kick-off 7.45pm).

 

UCD had to overcome a spirited display by Cabinteely in their opening league match at Stradbrook last Friday night. A Simon Power goal three minutes before the break was enough to see UCD win in a tense encounter and get those all-important three points under their belts.

 

The Students boss Collie O’Neill was understandably pleased with the result particularly with the number of young players in his team, along with the amount of players absent due to being on Collingwood Cup duty.

 

He is hoping for a big attendance and support in their maiden home league match in Belfield.

 

"We had five players in that starting eleven tonight who are still in school,” said O’Neill speaking to sseairtricityleague.ie. “Boy, did they play with their hearts on their sleeves tonight."



 

SHELBOURNE

The Reds face a real test of their promotion aspirations when they make the relatively short trip to southside to take on UCD.

 

Shels produced a battling performance against promotion favourites Longford Town last week to hold out for a 0-0 draw. That point was thanks largely to Dean Delany who made a superb save to deny Town following the award of a fortuitous penalty.

 



Shels boss Owen Heary felt his side were somewhat below par but was satisfied with the result “Performance-wise we were not up to our standard, but regarding grit, battling and attitude it was spot on,” said Heary speaking to shelbournefc.ie.

 

“Deano (Delany) pulled off a fantastic penalty save. I thought there was a lot of nerves in the game, which is like that every season – first games of the season are up and down. Overall though, I’m pleased that we kept a clean sheet and we’re on the points board.”

 

For the second consecutive week, a former Shels manager (Collie O’Neill) will face the Richmond Road side at the UCD Bowl. Shels boss Owen Heary feels confident going into this clash with their near neighbours.

 

“It’s now on to UCD, who won their game (against Cabinteely). We’ll be going there to try to pick up all three points.”

 

Shelbourne boss Heary has a number of absentees to contend with for the trip to Belfield with James O’Brien failing to recover from the injury he sustained against Longford Town last Friday and Dylan Kavanagh and Chris Lyons are also unavailable with minor problems.

 

Referee: Damien McGrath

 

 

MATCH FACTS

UCD came out on top in all four of their league encounters against Shelbourne last season scoring nine times to Shels four.

The sides have met each other on 52 occasions since 1995 with Shelbourne winning 28 times to UCD’s 13, along with 11 draws. Shelbourne scored 83 goals averaging 1.6 goals per game while UCD have scored 53 averaging just over a goal per game.

 

BETTING

UCD 11/10 Draw 12/5 Shelbourne 9/4

 

PREDICTION

UCD 2-1 Shelbourne

 

UCD

Injured: NA

Doubtful: NA

Suspended: NA

 

Shelbourne

Injured: James O’Brien, Dylan Kavanagh, Chris Lyons

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

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