Kildare County -v- Wexford Youths

Kildare County will be looking to bounce back from their demoralising 6-1 defeat to Monaghan United last week when they entertain Mick Wallace's Wexford Youths side this Friday in Station Road (kick-off 8.00pm). They currently trail Mervue United by seven points with a game less played, and will need a win here if they are to avoid finishing bottom of the table this season, and by extension avoiding a relegation/promotion play-off against Salthill Devon.

Wexford, on the other hand, have something to play for as well as they have a chance of finishing in 5th place, where their main challengers are Monaghan United. A win here would mean that they would potentially finish top of a sort of 'mini-league', consisting of all the sides outside of the 'Top Four' of Shelbourne, Sporting Fingal, UCD and Waterford United.

In stark contrast to the way that County fared last week, Youths had quite a good evening's work on Friday, when they recorded a 1-0 victory over Finn Harps. This will give them great confidence going into this tie, even though they are one of only four teams that Kildare have beaten this season. Ferrycarrig Park was the venue for a clash between the two sides on July 31 st, and The Thoroughbreds came away with a surprise 3-0 win with a brace coming from ace marksman Philly Hughes, and one coming from substitute Trevor Bowers.

A clash between the two sides also took place in Newbridge last May, in what was Joey Somerville's first game in charge after taking over from previous boss Thomas 'Cooper' Donnelly. The score was also 3-0 on this occasion, except it was in favour of the away side this time, with goals coming from David Breen, Gavin Doyle and Richard Fitzgerald.

In general, Kildare have a decent record against Wexford Youths, with five wins, three draws and two losses from ten encounters. So, they won't have any great reason to fear Wexford going into this game, but will need to improve greatly on their recent home form, which has seen them losing five games on-the-trot in front of their home fans.

They go into this game with most of their players having returned from injury or suspension, although Craig Purcell will once again miss out on this one following his recent sending-off against UCD in the Belfield Bowl. Wexford Youths will also be missing a couple of players through suspension in Conor Sinnott and Gareth McCurtin, while David Miller will also be watching from the stands as he nurses an injury.

Speaking ahead of the match, Wexford Youths boss Mick Wallace is adamant that Kildare will prove to be formidable opponents on the night.

“This is going to be a really tough game for us. Kildare are a very good side and they showed that when they beat us at Ferrycarrig earlier in the season. Their League position doesn’t do them justice and we always find it difficult up in their place, so it’s going to be a good game” said Wallace.

Hopefully he is right, as both sides could do with good ends to the season for very different reasons, and it should prove to be a very tight contest tomorrow evening.

Extratime.ie prediction: With something at stake for both sides, it should be a relatively open game, and the safest bet would be on both sides avoiding defeat. Kildare County 1-1 Wexford Youths.