Sporting Fingal vs St Patricks Athletic

Sporting Fingal play the biggest game so far in their short history on Thursday night when they welcome St. Patrick’s Athletic to Morton Stadium for an FAI Ford Cup quarter-final tie (19.45).

Fingal continue to be without Brian Kelly due to a back injury and missing, too, is the cup-tied Barry Ferguson. Both Brendan Clarke and John Frost are also unavailable under the terms of their loan agreements from St. Pat’s.

Liam Buckley, manager of Sporting Fingal, is eagerly anticipating what promises to be a cracking cup tie.

“St. Pats, of course, are the favourites to advance to the semi-finals but we intend to make this cup tie competitive,” he said.

“Our unbeaten home record at Morton Stadium is a source of pride to both our players and staff and we aim to keep it for as long as possible.

“The two recent wins we got over Shelbourne and Monaghan United ensure we remain in contention at the top end of the eircom First Division. Overall, we are in good shape as we approach the business end of the campaign.”

Fingal winger Brian Morrisroe won a Premier Division medal with St. Patrick’s Athletic in 1996, alongside his current manager Liam Buckley, and is looking forward to the visit of his former club.

“I have great memories from my time at Inchicore. It’s fantastic to see them progressing in the UEFA Cup this season and the whole league will be behind them when they play Hertha Berlin next week.

“However, our form of late means that we go into this FAI Cup tie full of confidence. Once we put in our best effort, I feel we can give them a good contest.”

After St Pats 3-0 defeat against Bohemians last Monday effectively ending their chances of challenging for the league title, Johnny McDonnell will be looking to focus his players attention’s on this Cup clash. The job will be made all that harder with the UEFA Cup game against Hertha Berlin around the corner.

Derek O'Brien and Jason Gavin are both cup tied, having played for Galway United and Drogheda United respectively in the Cup this year. In injury news, John Murphy is a major doubt having had a reoccurance of his back problem against Linfield in the Setanta Sports Cup. Keith Fahey is unlikely to feature. Partridge and Bialek are both not fully match fit but could play some part in the game. Dessie Byrne is available again after serving his suspension against Bohemians on Monday.

Adult tickets are priced at €15 for the game and concession tickets are €8.

Extratime.ie Prediction: We expect this game to be a lively affair. Both teams have scored on average 1.5 goals per league game this season with Pats conceding 0.7 goals per game over Sporting’s 0.8. We think Pats will win it, in normal time, on a scoreline of 2-1 ending Fingal’s cup run.