Cork City -v- St. Patrick's Athletic

• Alan Smith
• Thu, Mar 12 2009


Cork City’s first home game of the 2009 season will see a battle between two managers at new clubs, as St. Patricks Athletic come to Turners Cross (kick-off 7.45pm)

Opening weekend
Both failed to win on the opening weekend, leaving both Paul Doolin and Jeff Kenna unhappy. In the case of Cork, they ended up giving away a soft equaliser to Sligo Rovers, after leading 1-0. It would have been a good win for the Rebel Army but Doolin was left dissapointed at the final whistle.

“As a first game Sligo was a tricky fixture for us as they are a decent team and conditions were far from ideal, but I think when you are leading with two minutes to go, you have to be disappointed to concede such a soft goal and only take a point out of it.” said the Dubliner.

Pat’s were destroyed 3-0 by Kenna’s ex-club, Galway United at Richmond Park on the opening night. It was bitter pill to swallow for the former Irish international, after he left the Tribesmen in the off-season.

Team News
Cork will be without the services of Stephen O’Donnell, who was badly injured on his competitive debut at Sligo last weekend. The central midfielder was only a second half substitute and his first league appearance for Cork ended in a serious knee injury. It is expected that the ex-Bohs man will be out for two to three months.

Latvian defender Robert Mezeckis will be given a late fitness test, after he picked up and achilles injury during the club's challenge game with Reading last Tuesday. Other than that, Doolin will have a full squad to choose from.

Colin Healy and Joe Gamble will start in the middle of the park with Billy Dennehy looking to continue his good start to the season on the left wing. The versatile Pat Sullivan looks set to play on the right flank again, while Danny Murphy and Neal Horgan will start at full back. Up front, Faz Kuduzovic will start; however, Doolin will have to make a decision about his strike partner. Denis Behan started last week but put in a poor performance, so Guntars Silagailis might get the nod ahead of the Abbeyfeale man.

“The players have been training really well, and while I do think we started a bit late with pre-season, we cannot wait to get out in front of the crowd at Turner’s Cross and hopefully get our first win of the season.” said Doolin as he leads his new team out into their first competitive home game of the season.

Kenna, meanwhile, will be without Brendan Clarke (foot), Steven Maher, Bobby Ryan and Glen Fitzpatrick (all knee), but last season’s top scorer Mark Quigley will have a fitness test today. While the now infamous Gary Dempsey is suspended for the tie. Speaking ahead of the game, former Ireland defender, Kenna said: “It won’t be easy going to Turner’s Cross but we believe in ourselves, we have good players here and still believe that we can be challenging at the top of the table.”

Last season
Arguably the best game of 2008 was when both of these sides met at Richmond Park, with Pats running out 3-2 winners in a classic. However, the following two encounters ended in stalemate, with the two teams cancelling each other out defensively.

Derek Tomney will take charge of the encounter and St. Pats are 3/1 to take the three points back to Dublin, while the home side are 5/6, with the draw priced at 9/4.