Wexford Youths vs. Dundalk FC

Leaders Dundalk will be aiming to extend their cushion at the top of the League of Ireland First Division table and in the process return to winning ways when they tackle a Wexford Youths side without a win at home in five months at Ferrycarrig Park this Friday night (kick-off 8pm).

Since defeating Shelbourne at home in mid-September, Dundalk have taken just one point from the subsequent six on offer. After being denied by a late, late leveller in Monaghan, the Lilywhites suffered a shock defeat to Longford Town at Oriel Park last Thursday evening. That loss ended a run of six straight wins on home soil, and they will have to improve a poor recent away record here if they are to lead the standings for the twelfth successive week.

Dundalk, who are without a clean-sheet in seven games, have not won on the road since beating Longford 3-0 at Flancare Park at the end of July, taking just three points in total from trips to Sporting Fingal, Limerick 37, Athlone Town and Monaghan United. They are also without a win-to-nil since narrowly beating Wexford at home over two months ago.

Dundalk, however, should be confident of laying those unwanted records to rest against a club that they have fared extremely well against in the past two seasons. Since Wexford came into the league at the beginning of last year, the Oriel outfit have taken six wins and one draw from the seven meetings between the pair to date. They have also scored 17 times and conceded just once during that period.

One man hoping to get the nod to start in the sunny South East is striker Trevor Vaughan, who returned from honeymoon last week but was overlooked for the visit of Longford. The veteran hitman has an excellent record against Wexford as he has scored five goals in six appearances against them over the past eighteen months. Last May, he hit an extraordinary hat-trick at Ferrycarrig Park, the second of that trio being his 100th league goal in Irish football.

“I know Mick Wallace doesn’t like seeing me,” Vaughan quipped to extratime.ie. “I don’t know what the team is yet, but if I’m called upon, I’m called upon. I’m always there and I always give 100%. I just want the team to win, no matter who plays or who scores. Obviously, you want to play, but that’s the way it happens. The two weeks away probably done me the world of good.”

Vaughan, who watched from the stands last week, admits he felt the Lilywhites had let the initiative slip when losing to Longford. A favour from Athlone at nearest rivals Waterford United 24 hours later left Dundalk at the summit for another week, however, Vaughan fears there may be no more lives to live should they drop any further points.

“It was disappointing,” he acknowledged. “It was poor and I think everybody knows that; you can’t hide behind it. You can take defeat sometimes, but when you play bad, it’s harder to take. I don’t think it was nerves - I don’t know what it was - we just didn’t perform. As well as that, I really thought we had thrown it away, and then Waterford don’t seem to want to win it either! I don’t know how many lives we want at this stage, but, hopefully, we’ll learn.”

Wexford, for their part, bounced back from a battering in the League Cup final to defeat table proppers Kildare County last Friday night. The Youths won that crucial six-pointer at Station Road thanks to early goals from star striker Danny Furlong and midfielder Patsy Malone - a welcome win following a 6-1 mauling at the hands of Derry City in the LC decider the previous weekend.

Their recent away outings in the league have been impressive with an unlucky loss to title chasing Waterford sandwiched in between away wins at Fingal and Kildare. Their home form, however, has left a lot to be desired. Of their 27 points accumulated so far, 16 of them have come away from Ferrycarrig Park, where they have not won since Limerick last played there way back on 16 May. In 11 subsequent games at the venue in all competitions, Wexford have drawn three and lost eight.

Team News: Dundalk’s midfield department is badly hit by suspensions for this long trip south. Influential midfielder Paul Shiels, the club’s top scorer in the league Jamie Duffy and fellow winger Derek Doyle are all ruled out through one-match bans as a result of accumulating four penalty points. Striker Robbie Martin (knee) also misses out through injury. On the flip side, striker Robbie Farrell returns after serving an automatic suspension last week for his straight red card in Monaghan. Joint-top overall goalscorer, central midfielder Paul Crowley also comes back into contention after missing the visit of Longford due to a bout of flu. For Wexford, classy midfielder Conor Sinnott is suspended.