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

DERRY CITY

Derry City play their first game in two weeks, as their games since the 5-1 demolition of Bray Wanderers on March 16^th were postponed due to international call-ups.

Ronan and Rory Hale got on the scoresheet and Ronan Curtis was man of the match as the Republic of Ireland under-21s overcame Iceland.

And Conor McDermott and Jamie McDonagh lined out for Northern Ireland who valiantly fell to Spain under-21s.

Friday night’s fixture will be Derry’s first of eight games over the course of the month of April.

Kenny Shiels, speaking to the club website, was full of praise for his team and supporters who have turned out in huge numbers for the first two fixtures.

“At the Brandywell it’s been great," he said.

"The supporters have played a big part. People talk about the pitch, the supporters and the environment, but the players need to get a bit of praise for it, because they have performed well and I hope they can continue to perform.

"St Pats are a hugely experienced team. They have fantastic players throughout the squad and we will certainly have our work cut out to get a result.

“We’ve had to change parts of our game. We’ve lost quality players to the other top clubs. We haven’t fully arrived yet and we’ve got another tough game on our hands.

"The one thing I would say is that these are two teams who like to get the ball down and play. I would hope it will be an entertaining watch for the supporters.”

ST. PATRICK’S ATHLETIC

St.Pat’s travel to the Brandywell fresh of the back of a win as a goal from captain Ian Bermingham ensured they took all three points against Limerick last Friday night. 

Speaking ahead of the game, manager Buckley admitted he was looking forward to the club’s first game in the newly developed Brandywell stadium.

The opportunity to try and record a second successive win in the space of a week is one he is targeting as he heads into the game with a full squad to select from.

“The players were very professional last week in their performance against Limerick in Richmond Park," Buckley told the club's official website.

“We kept trying to do the right things and defensively I thought we were good.  We scored a good goal from a set-piece and saw it out well so we were happy with the result, but will continue to work on trying to improve our levels of performance.

“We have a tough game on Friday night.  Travelling up to Derry is always difficult and it will be interesting to play in their new stadium. 

The old pitch in Derry was an excellent surface and this one too is supposed to be good too so we will look to get it down and play good football up there and get a result.

“There have been many entertaining games between the sides over the years, and with the television cameras there, they should get a good game. However even though all eyes will be on the game, we will approach it as normal and hopefully come out on the right side of things.”

Referee: Robert Harvey

MATCH STATS

The game will be shown live on RTE Two with a 7:30pm kick-off. This will be the first time the live television cameras have come to the redeveloped Brandywell.

All three of last year’s fixtures were close encounters with two draws in Derry’s home fixtures and Pat’s claiming a 2-1 win in their home encounter.

There was a total of nine goals in last year’s three games, therefore we would be right to assume this one should promise goals.

Derry come into the game as one of the highest scorers to this point with fourteen. While Pat’s hold one of the best defensive records only shipping seven to date.

Last three league matches: Derry City LWW; St.Patrick’s Athletic; DLW

BETTING

Derry City evens; St.Patrick’s Athletic 5/2; Draw 21/10

PREDICTION

Derry City 2–1 St.Patrick’s Athletic  

Derry City

Injured: John Cofie, Gavin Peers.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: Nicky Low.

St.Patrick’s Athletic

Injured: None.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended:  None.