Preview: Sligo Rovers vs St Patrick's Athletic

John McDonnell will not be underestimating an on-form Sligo Rovers side for tomorrow night's fixture as his St Patrick's Athletic side travel to the Showgrounds to take on the high flying Sligo side.

McDonnell will have to play the Bit O'Red without the services of several key players. Former Longford Town player Stephen Paisley, David Partridge, Joseph Ndo, John Frost and Joe O'Cearuill will all be be missing.

Speaking about tomorrow night's game, John McDonnell said “Paul Cook is doing at great job at Sligo and they brought Brays’ run of form to an end last week with a good win. It’s always a difficult place to go and pick up points, with Stephen Paisley out and having played each other already we can expect a pretty tight game”

Sligo however have pretty much a full strength squad to choose from, except for the suspension of Chris Butler, who remains sidelined on account of yellow cards. Romauld Boco returns for the Sligo side after failing a fitness test before last week's game against Bray Wanderers.

John McDonnell added that he would like to see the Inchicore outfit continue their good form into the second series of games when he commented that “This is the first of the second series of league matches. At this stage last year we had 26 points on the board – the same as we have now, but we only secured 13 points in the second phase of games. We really have to improve on that if we are going to be in serious contention this season.”

All in all, it promises to be a cracking encounter as the Bit O'Red have one of the best home record in the league and are riding high in fourth place going into this weekend's series of fixtures. St Pat's have emulated last season's brilliant start to the season and will be looking to beat the Sligo team, in order to push on towards the League of Ireland trophy.

Kick-off on Friday is at 8pm, and it promises to be a great occasion in the Showgrounds.