League Preview: Sligo Rovers -v- Dundalk

Buoyed by their opening day win over Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk travel West to the Showgrounds to take on a Sligo Rovers side reeling from their 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Limerick on the opening night.

SLIGO ROVERS

Starting seasons’ slowly has been an unfortunate feature of the Bit O’Red’s last two campaigns and is surely something that manager Dave Robertson will be seeking to avoid this term, although last Friday night’s mauling at the Markets Field wasn’t the ideal start.

Having taken only eight points from their first 11 league games in 2015, it took the Sligo men nine games to get a win last term. A run which ultimately cost them a place in Europe following their strong mid-late season run.

A poor start this season could perhaps be costlier though with the league looking a lot tighter than it has been in recent years, add onto that the increased number of demotion places and within weeks you could be handling a relegation battle.

In terms of what they can offer against the Champions, Robertson again seems to be dealing with a lot of novices, particularly at League of Ireland level.

Quite a bit of Sligo’s promise from the end of last season stemmed from the form of attacking duo Achille Campion and Jimmy Keohane, both of whom departed for Cork City in the off season while Gavin Peers also left the Showgrounds to sign for St. Patrick’s Athletic.

Consequentially, the Bit O’Red manager has dipped into the English market again for players with Matthew Stevens, their goal scorer from last Friday’s game, and Jonah Ayunga signing as Robertson bids to build on last year’s fifth-place finish.

Key for the Westerners was keeping the likes of skipper Craig Roddan, right-back Tobi Adebayo-Rowling and keeper Michéal Schlingermann, with the team essentially being pivoted around the presence of those three, although Raffaele Cretaro grew in importance towards the end of last season with Sligo’s reliant on his goal scoring abilities, especially in Campion’s absence.

Cretaro was on target in the Bit O’Red’s 3-0 upset of Dundalk in Oriel Park towards the end of last season, a result which blew the league title race wide open.

Their hopes of a repeat performance could rest on Schlingermann reaching fitness, though, as the keeper is struggling with a groin complaint.

Ahead of the champions’ visit, Robertson spoke with sligorovers.com and offered his thoughts on how the Bit O’Red can improve from their opening night defeat.

“The natural reaction after last week was disappointment and we have tried to raise their spirits but as the week has gone on the players have lifted their own spirits too,” the Englishman said.

“Every game is different and certainly the three-in-a-row champions coming to town raises eyebrows. This is the start of our Showgrounds campaign and I think we can get a positive result to get us off the mark.”

DUNDALK FC

The Lilywhites travel to the Showgrounds on Saturday evening looking to extend their unbeaten run at the venue to six games.

However, consistency and wins away from home have been a trend in Dundalk’s domestic monopoly of late with the County Louth men having more games at Oriel Park than at away grounds in two of Stephen Kenny’s four seasons in charge.

If they’re to retain their league crown for a fourth consecutive season, though, much will depend on them upholding the ‘fortress Oriel’ tag and last week’s 2-1 win over Shamrock Rovers was the perfect start.

Ciaran Kilduff’s second-half header turned out to be the winner, as the striker nodded home an inch perfect delivery from Patrick McEleney to build on Robbie Benson’s neat opener, as Dundalk sealed an opening day home triumph over Shamrock Rovers for the first time since 1989.

Last week’s win was a real statement of intent from the champions and manager Stephen Kenny saw it fitting to reference the win over Rovers when speaking to the club’s website about their game with the Bit O’Red.

“It was great to get a win last week in our first game against Shamrock Rovers. It was a good win for us. The confidence gained from that victory and we want to bring that into our fixture against Sligo Rovers.

“We have to bring that form into this weekend in Sligo, which will be a difficult fixture. We must strive to do that to get the victory,” Kenny told dundalkfc.com.

The Lilywhites must do without a host of first teamers again and they may have to add Stephen O’Donnell to that list too. The Dundalk captain limped off 67 minutes into their league opener with the recurrence of a quad-muscle injury and is rated as doubtful for Saturday night.

Kenny has added a fair bit of depth to his squad and, with the way things are going, it will be needed.

Referee: Ben Connolly

MATCH STATS

Sligo won the last meeting between the sides in October, although that marks their only victory over the Lilywhites in ten attempts.

Overall, Dundalk have the better head-to-head record, leading 58 wins to 46 although the Bit O’Red have the upper hand at the Showgrounds, winning 27 of their home games against Dundalk while losing 22.

Although two former Sligo players are currently on the books at Dundalk, although neither David McMillan nor Gary Rogers, who starred in the Bit O’Red’s 2012 title winning season, will face their old employers due to injury. Meaning that, unusually, no player will be facing his former club when the teams clash tomorrow night.

BETTING

Sligo Rovers 13/2; Draw 16/5; Dundalk 4/9.

PREDICTION

Sligo Rovers 0-2 Dundalk

Sligo Rovers

Injured: None

Doubtful: Michéal Schlingermann (groin)

Suspended: None

Dundalk

Injured: Gary Rogers (calf), Chris Shields (groin), Sean Hoare (groin), David McMillan (knee), Shane Grimes (hamstring)

Doubtful: Stephen O’Donnell (quad)

Suspended: None