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

St Pat's players celebrate Ronan Coughlan's goal last weekend against Bohemians.

St Pat's players celebrate Ronan Coughlan's goal last weekend against Bohemians. Credit: Conor Ryan (ETPhotos)

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC

St Patricks Athletic come into their fourth game of the 2021 campaign on the back of a very impressive start to the season, having picked up two wins and a draw in their first three games.

As well as accumulating the 7 points, more importantly perhaps for Stephen O Donnell’s side is that four of those points came again two of last season’s more dominant teams -  Shamrock Rovers (a well-deserved 1-1 draw in Tallaght Stadium) and last weekend’s 1-0 win away to Bohemians in Dalymount Park.

The first half of the game against Bohemians was a scrappy enough affair, with Pats only creating two half chances over the course of the 45 minutes, Matty Smith and Robbie Benson both drawing saves from James Talbot in the Bohemians goal.

The winning goal came from a set piece in the 62nd minute. 18 -year-old debutant Darragh Burns made good progress down the left wing before putting in a looping cross which Anto Breslin was forced to put behind for a corner. Robbie Benson’s perfectly flighted corner kick reached an unmarked Ronan Coughlan at the far post and he gave Talbot no chance with a well-directed header.

At the club’s weekly press conference, Stephen O Donnell said "while we are joint top of the table, we are only three games in and I still don’t see us a title contenders. I think the table will look very differently at the end of the season and all we can do is try to improve week on week."

O‘Donnell went on to say that he was very impressed with Darragh Burns (he fired home a penalty with three minutes of extra time remaining in last December’s U19 League Final against Bohemians to win that title for Pats) last weekend saying "he exudes confidence, nothing fazes him and I had no worries about throwing him into a big Dublin derby."

Pat’s will be without Shane Griffin (shoulder) and Cian Kelly (foot) going into Friday night’s match but with a strong squad to select from they will be looking to use home advantage to maintain their early season momentum.

DERRY CITY

Derry City have played one game less than all other sides in the Premier Division due to 23 year old goalkeeper Nathan Garthside’s call up by Ian Baraclough for the Northern Ireland World Cup qualifiers against Italy and Bulgaria (this resulted in Derry’s game Shamrock Rovers being postponed ), but in the two games they have played they have failed to gain any points and sit at the bottom of the table .



In their opening game away to Longford in Bishopsgate they conceded goals in the 8th and 72nd minute and did not create many chances themselves over the 90 minutes.

Their game against Shamrock Rovers on March 27th was postponed and while they played much better in their last outing against Waterford at home and the general consensus was that they were unlucky to lose, they still came out on the wrong side of a 2-1 score line.

Waterford’s Shane Griffin gave Waterford the lead against the run of play with a terrific free kick on the half hour mark but Derry deservedly got back on level terms on the stroke of half time when Cameron McJannet sent Will Patching’s cross past Brian Murphy.

Derry conceded a penalty in the 52nd minute and although Garthside saved Oscar Brennan’s spot kick the former Shelbourne player followed up the rebound to fire home what transpired to be the winning goal.

Derry Manager Declan Devine will be without defender Darren Cole (back injury) this weekend but he insists the rest of the squad are fit and rearing to go. 

Devine speaking to his club's media team said: "Of course we were gutted to lose on Saturday night but the result was far from a fair reflection of the game, I keep saying that I have total faith in this squad but more importantly they have faith in themselves and each other."



Referee: Ben Connolly

MATCH STATS

In the last two meetings between these two sides in 2020, Derry had a 2-0 win in Richmond Park in August while the return leg in the Brandywell in September resulted in a 0-0 draw.

BETTING

St Patricks Athletic 7/10: Draw 9/4: Derry City 4/1.

St Patricks Athletic

Injured: Shane Griffin (Shoulder), Cian Kelly (Foot)

Doubtful: n/a

Suspended: n/a

Derry City

Injured: Darren Cole (Back)

Doubtful: n/a

Suspended: n/a

    About Patrick O'Connor

    View Full Profile