St. Patrick's Athletic -v- Sligo Rovers
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The Setanta Cup enters the knockout stage on Monday night as St. Patrick’s Athletic welcome Sligo Rovers to Richmond Park for the first leg of their semi-final (kick off 7.45pm).
St. Patrick’s Athletic are unbeaten in the league campaign and top the Airtricity League table after four games. Yet to concede a single goal in the league, manager Pete Mahon is hoping his side can continue their impressive defensive displays.
“We’ve had a good start to the season, the players are giving 100% ever week, it’s great to win a game and not concede a goal and we’re looking forward to maintaining that defensive performance.”
Mahon knows Sligo will be hard to break down but is hoping that they will be entering the second leg on the back of a home win.
“They’ve a good team and a good manager. They beat us comprehensively 2-0 at the end of last season and though the season did not end too well for them last year but they’ve added some quality players to their squad since then.
It’s over two legs and we can expect two toughs game but we’re hoping that we can build some sort of platform on Monday night to bring with us to the Showgrounds –we don’t want to be going there in a deficit situation.”
Damien Lynch who didn’t feature on Friday night against Dundalk with a thigh strain is expected to be available for selection. Brian Cash is unavailable as the midfielder is cup tied having featured for the Bit O` Red earlier in the campaign.
Sligo Rovers have also gone unbeaten in the league to date and Paul Cook is expected to play his strongest XI and has plenty of options available with Mauro Almeida pushing to start after an impressive substitute appearance last Friday.
Cook will be without Paul Whelan and Joesph Ndo for the tie. Whelan is still struggling with a leg injury but he should come back into contention for the Airtricity League match with Drogheda United on Friday night. Ndo is cup-tied having played for his former club Bohemians earlier in the competition. Gavin Peers was sent off for Rovers last Friday night in the 0-0 draw with Bohs but his upcoming suspension will not come into force for this competition.
The tie is the Bit o’ Red’s third major semi-final in the last 12 months having reached the last four of the EA Sports Cup and the final of the FAI Cup in 2009.
The good news for fans planning on attending the game is St Pats have introduced a special €10 adult priced ticket for this game.
Venue: Richmond Park, Dublin
Paddypower.com odds: St. Patrick’s Athletic 11/10, Draw 11/5, Sligo Rovers 12/5
Extratime Prediction: A tight game, with Sligo just edging it by a single goal 0-1.
St. Patrick’s Athletic are unbeaten in the league campaign and top the Airtricity League table after four games. Yet to concede a single goal in the league, manager Pete Mahon is hoping his side can continue their impressive defensive displays.
“We’ve had a good start to the season, the players are giving 100% ever week, it’s great to win a game and not concede a goal and we’re looking forward to maintaining that defensive performance.”
Mahon knows Sligo will be hard to break down but is hoping that they will be entering the second leg on the back of a home win.
“They’ve a good team and a good manager. They beat us comprehensively 2-0 at the end of last season and though the season did not end too well for them last year but they’ve added some quality players to their squad since then.
It’s over two legs and we can expect two toughs game but we’re hoping that we can build some sort of platform on Monday night to bring with us to the Showgrounds –we don’t want to be going there in a deficit situation.”
Damien Lynch who didn’t feature on Friday night against Dundalk with a thigh strain is expected to be available for selection. Brian Cash is unavailable as the midfielder is cup tied having featured for the Bit O` Red earlier in the campaign.
Sligo Rovers have also gone unbeaten in the league to date and Paul Cook is expected to play his strongest XI and has plenty of options available with Mauro Almeida pushing to start after an impressive substitute appearance last Friday.
Cook will be without Paul Whelan and Joesph Ndo for the tie. Whelan is still struggling with a leg injury but he should come back into contention for the Airtricity League match with Drogheda United on Friday night. Ndo is cup-tied having played for his former club Bohemians earlier in the competition. Gavin Peers was sent off for Rovers last Friday night in the 0-0 draw with Bohs but his upcoming suspension will not come into force for this competition.
The tie is the Bit o’ Red’s third major semi-final in the last 12 months having reached the last four of the EA Sports Cup and the final of the FAI Cup in 2009.
The good news for fans planning on attending the game is St Pats have introduced a special €10 adult priced ticket for this game.
Venue: Richmond Park, Dublin
Paddypower.com odds: St. Patrick’s Athletic 11/10, Draw 11/5, Sligo Rovers 12/5
Extratime Prediction: A tight game, with Sligo just edging it by a single goal 0-1.
