Cork City -v- St. Patrick's Athletic

• Gareth Penrose
• Tue, Jul 07 2009


Cork City welcome St. Patrick’s Athletic to Turner’s Cross on Tuesday night (kick-off 20:00) hoping they can leap frog Shamrock Rovers and move into third place. St. Pat’s will be looking for a strong performance ahead of their Europa League outings, which is also the reason this game is down for decision on a Tuesday evening.

Since May of last year, these sides have met a total of five times in the league. They have both managed to win two games, with a scoreless draw the outcome of the fifth game. The last encounter in Inchicore saw Cork put three goals past the Saints without reply.

Cork City returned to winning ways with a two nil win over Galway last week. Talking to corkcityfc.ie, Manager Paul Doolin was pleased with his sides overall performance, and pointed to the quality of the playing surface as a factor in many of Cork’s good displays this season.

“To be fair to Galway, they started well and came out attacking, and Dan Connor had to make a good save early on. I think we got stronger as the game went on, and we played some good football at times, and Faz scored an excellent goal to seal the win. I was very pleased with the way we played and how solid we looked at the back as well. Terryland was an excellent setting for a game, and the quality of the surface was fantastic and it really helped us to get the ball down and play. I think if you look back over the season, we have played very well when the surface has been good.”

In Cork City team news, Robert Mezeckis and Billy Dennehy are both still sidelined with Achilles and hamstring injuries, but Shane Duggan will be available following suspension. Denis Behan picked up a knock to his ankle against Galway but it is hoped that he will recover to feature.

Last Saturday, St. Pat’s were on the wrong end of a Gary Twigg brace as they went down 2-1 against Shamrock Rovers. The Scottish striker has been in sensational form since joining the Hoops this season. With Mark Quigley sidelined for Jeff Kenna, the St. Pat’s manager is all too aware of the benefits of having a striker that can change a game in an instant.

“The result on Saturday night was disappointing as we had matched Rovers in most departments over the 90 minutes. It shows the value of having an inform striker like Gary Twigg - he had been kept pretty quite but two chances fell to him and he took them both. It’s disappointing as I say, but we need to put it behind us and put in a good performance down in Cork”.

Kenna will be without the services of the aforementioned striker and Pat’s captain Mark Quigley who has a broken jaw. Mark Leech and Gary Dempsey are still sidelined with broken legs whilst Damien Lynch is out with an ankle injury. Jamie Harris is struggling with a neck injury but may be passed fit to play. John Lester is suspended and while Dave Partridge returns from suspension and Darragh Ryan returns from injury to join the squad.

Extratime.ie Prediction: Cork City to extend the winning run to two games with a 2-1 win over the Saints.