President’s Cup Preview: Shamrock Rovers -v- St. Patrick’s Athletic

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Champions Shamrock Rovers take on FAI Cup Winners St. Patrick’s Athletic at Tallaght Stadium on Friday evening in front of a near sold-out crowd (kick-off is at 8pm).

SHAMROCK ROVERS

The new North Stand is ready and will be open for the first time for the President Cup clash on Friday. Stephen Bradley when speaking to Shamrock Rovers media team is aiming to have the new stand full most matchdays. 

“It’s incredible. You only have to look at the President’s Cup game. It’s close to selling out, the season ticket sales are at an all-time high. With the new North Stand, our aim has to be to fill that as often as possible, to fill the ground as often as possible. 

“I’ve no doubt we can do that, with everybody around the club playing their part to make sure that happens and the team trying to play good football and winning games obviously will help”. 

On the game, Bradley called it an important fixture, but they will be using the match to give players minutes to be ready for the league opener. 

‘It’s an important game, there’s something on the line, we’re playing against a good St Pats side and we want to win the game. But we’ve always used it as a pre-season game, in terms of getting players ready for the Dundalk game next week. 

“That will continue to be the case against St Pat’s. But we’ll try to win the game and our substitutions, I think we’re allowed six, will be already planned and hopefully can happen.”

ST. PATRICK’S ATHLETIC 

The Saints will be bringing 2,300 fans to Tallaght Stadium on Friday night. Their biggest ever allocation at Shamrock Rovers. St Pat's won the first ever edition of the President's Cup in 2014.



Last time The Athletic were in the President’s Cup was in 2022, when they lost to Rovers on penalties after drawing 1-1 in normal time. 

Pats boss Jon Daly led the club to FAI Cup success last November, and he's excited at the possibility of picking up another on Friday night with a win in Tallaght: 

"We're looking forward to the game, it will be a good test for both sides heading into the beginning of the league next week.

“We've got a huge crowd of 2,300 heading to Tallaght, which I'm told is our biggest ever away crowd going there, our supporters have been fantastic and we're excited about playing in front of them again tomorrow night before going to Galway.

“Ourselves and Rovers have had really good games over the last couple of years, it's the league winners against the cup winners with lots of quality players on both sides, so it'' great to have a competitive game like this so close to the new season."

Referee: Damien MacGraith



PREDICTION

Shamrock Rovers 1-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic (St. Patrick’s Athletic to win on penalties) 

Shamrock Rovers

Injured: Aaron McEneff, Johnny Kenny, Richie Towell. 

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

 

St. Patrick’s Athletic

Injured: Tom Grivosti

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

About Luke Jordan

Luke joined the extratime.com team in 2022 and is the current host of the extratime.com podcast.

He’s been a follower of the league since 2007 after the FAI Soccer camps gave out … View Full Profile