League Preview: St Patrick's Athletic -v- Dundalk

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC 

A back-to-back bank holiday home win is on the agenda for St Patrick’s Athletic.

Under the tutelage of a manager who forged a Dundalk dynasty, the Dublin 8 outfit will welcome Stephen Kenny’s alma mater Dundalk to Richmond Park on Monday evening.

The Saints enter this fixture buoyed off the back of a win against Galway United - their first win in five games.

Kenny’s eleven secured a narrow 2-1 victory at home to the Tribesmen, where goals from 16-year-old playmaker Mason Melia (his 3rd of the season) and substitute Alex Nolan sheds end savor made Francely Lomboto’s 69th-minute equaliser inconsequential.

The Richmond revelers have needed to exercise the patience of a saint of late, a Danny Grant injury-time goal

for Bohemians at Dalymount Park and a late goal conceded to Damien Duff’s Shelbourne, a double jab to Kenny’s start.

Having secured FAI Cup glory last season (the fifth in the club's history) St Patrick's will do battle in the qualifying rounds of the Conference League later in the year.

Monday's hosts are not within the conversation for 2024's race for Europe however, with Kenny's side sitting at seventh in the table on 23 points, 14 points adrift of league leaders Shelbourne.

With joint-top goalscorer Ruairi Keating out due to concussion following a clash of heads with Bohemians defender Aboubacar Keita, Chris Forrester is set to spearhead the Richmond attack once again.

New manager Stephen Kenny spent six seasons with Dundalk, the Tallaght native pocketing four Premier Division titles, two FAI Cups and two League Cups during his time with the club.

The former senior international manager in addition qualified for the Europa League group stages in 2016 with Dundalk and entered the 2016 season as the reigning League Champions and FAI Cup holders from 2014, having won the 'Double' for the first time since 1987–88.

As if this fixture needed any further round-robin ties, Kenny's 18-year-old son Eoin is a member of the current Dundalk squad and could feature against his Father’s side in the bank holiday contest.

Kenny watched from the Jodi Stand as the Mary's College student made his League of Ireland debut against Bohemians in April, Kenny’s goal against Drogheda United in the Jim Malone Cup in February the only goal scored by the Lilywhites at Oriel Park until their 2-0 home win over The Gypsies.

Speaking to club media, Kenny reflected on St Pat’s recent results to date.

"Having conceded late in the last two games (against Shelbourne and Bohemians), the three points we got against Galway United on Friday was more than overdue and the players deserved that.

The lads showed a real togetherness and resolute quality and that was evident in the previous game against Bohemians as well as against Galway.

The first two performances (vs Derry City and Shelbourne) from a technical point of view were good, but we had to show different qualities in our most recent matches.

On Monday evening’s visitors, Kenny surmised:

“Dundalk played very well in their game against Derry City and put in a good performance and kept another clean sheet.

Our players need to show their ability to go again and a determination to do that - we want to try and produce the level of performance needed to win the game

"Dundalk don't concede many goals so it's down to us to try and break them down and score.”

DUNDALK

The Lilywhites for their part will travel to Inchicore looking to build upon a point picked up against the anything but sweet Candystripes at Oriel Park.

Former Pat's manager Jon Daly’s shoe print can still be traced along the track of turf that lines the Main Stand, the club releasing him in May of this year.

The 41-year-old's Oriel opener began with a 0-0 stalemate on Friday night.

This solidified seven consecutive clean sheets in the Lilywhites fixtures at home, a statistic that seems at odds with the team’s position at the bottom of the Premier Division Table.

Their fifth scoreless draw dates back to March 15th and their performance in Daly’s first home match at the helm deserved the full complement of points, yet the industrious Lilywhites were denied by Brian Maher’s acrobatics when he saved a missile launched by former Hibernian hitman Jamie Gullan in the 75th-minute.

In another interesting twist, ex-Saints John Mountney and Robbie Benson, who were part of the home side 2021 FAI Cup winning squad (Benson scored the winning penalty in their 4-3 shootout against Bohs), could face their former club in front of the Virgin Media Two crew who will cover tomorrow evenings fixture.

Speaking to dundalkfc.com, Daly deduced:

“It was a good win for St Pat’s on Friday, a late winner from Alex Nolan, so they’ll be going into Monday night full of confidence now. I think we have to take heart and confidence from our performance against Derry as well.

We’ll be going into it with a bit of confidence also and looking forward to the game. We’ve recovered over the weekend and we’ll go into this one fully focused on trying to get three points.”

On Daly’s time spent at the head of the old enemy, he said:

“I had a great time at St Pat’s, I loved it there, and the fans were very, very good with me.

I had success. I’m sure there’ll be a bit of banter. There’ll probably be one or two giving me a bit of stick, but that’s part and parcel of it. I have the utmost respect for the fans there.

“I enjoyed my time there but I’m going there now to try to beat them, and make sure I get three points for my new club.”

Referee: Rob Hennessy.

MATCH STATS

St Pat’s have taken four points from their two meetings with Dundalk this season, Ruairí Keating’s strike on 30 minutes breaking the patron's hearts on March 8th, before the sides shared the spoils in a 0-0 draw at Oriel Park on April 12th.

Dundalk will travel to Dublin 8 searching for their first win at Richmond Park since May 2021 when a Sam Bone own-goal and David McMillan effort rewarded the Lilywhites with three points.

In their last six fixtures, there have been two draws, St Pat's netting 3 wins while Dundalk have secured one.

PREDICTION

St Patrick's Athletic 1 - 0 Dundalk

St Patrick's Athletic

Injured: Anthony Breslin, Axel Sjoberg, Ruairi Keating. 

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Dundalk

Injured: Koen Oostenbrink. 

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Edin Terzić on Dortmund defeat: 'We weren’t just here to play a final but were here to win a final so we have mixed feelings' https://t.co/wjYtG1Zj9wpic.twitter.com/SYGB5Bnqem

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) June 2, 2024