Sporting Fingal -v- Monaghan United
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Sporting Fingal will be out to make amends for last weekend’s defeat at Finn Harps when they welcome Monaghan United to Morton Stadium on Friday night (7.45pm).
Saturday’s 3-2 loss at Ballybofey brought Fingal’s five game winning run to a halt but manager Liam Buckley is backing his squad to respond in the proper manner against Mons.
He said: “The performance at Finn Harps was not good enough; I know that and so do the players. It’s out of the system now and we’ve another challenge to face this week when Mick Cooke brings his improving Monaghan team to Morton.
“We’d been on a good run until Saturday and it’s important that we regain form quickly and pick up points to keep us challenging for promotion. Our injury problems are starting to clear up which, of course, provides us with more options in vital areas of the pitch.”
Shaun Williams and Gareth Whelan return from suspension while Shane McFaul comes back into contention after missing last week’s game due to illness.
Still out with injury for Fingal are centre-backs Shaun Maher (foot) and Stephen Paisley (ankle) along with striker Robbie Doyle (knee)
Mons manager Mick Cooke will be looking to maintain his sides recent run of good results which has seen them move into 6th position in the table. Cooke is looking forward to the clash.
“With our recent good string of results I am looking forward to Friday’s game. Recently we have been making good starts by scoring early in games, we continued to do so last week but we should have killed off the game when we had the opportunity and were lucky not to have paid for it at the end when Limerick came close to scoring. A good start again and keeping our focus against Sporting Fingal could make all the differences.”
With no injuries to worry about, Cooke will only be missing Sean Brennan through suspension.
Extratime Prediction: 1-1
Saturday’s 3-2 loss at Ballybofey brought Fingal’s five game winning run to a halt but manager Liam Buckley is backing his squad to respond in the proper manner against Mons.
He said: “The performance at Finn Harps was not good enough; I know that and so do the players. It’s out of the system now and we’ve another challenge to face this week when Mick Cooke brings his improving Monaghan team to Morton.
“We’d been on a good run until Saturday and it’s important that we regain form quickly and pick up points to keep us challenging for promotion. Our injury problems are starting to clear up which, of course, provides us with more options in vital areas of the pitch.”
Shaun Williams and Gareth Whelan return from suspension while Shane McFaul comes back into contention after missing last week’s game due to illness.
Still out with injury for Fingal are centre-backs Shaun Maher (foot) and Stephen Paisley (ankle) along with striker Robbie Doyle (knee)
Mons manager Mick Cooke will be looking to maintain his sides recent run of good results which has seen them move into 6th position in the table. Cooke is looking forward to the clash.
“With our recent good string of results I am looking forward to Friday’s game. Recently we have been making good starts by scoring early in games, we continued to do so last week but we should have killed off the game when we had the opportunity and were lucky not to have paid for it at the end when Limerick came close to scoring. A good start again and keeping our focus against Sporting Fingal could make all the differences.”
With no injuries to worry about, Cooke will only be missing Sean Brennan through suspension.
Extratime Prediction: 1-1
