Drogheda United -v- St. Patrick's Athletic

• P.J. Murray
• Thu, Jun 18 2009


Drogheda United will play their third game in six days as they host St Patrick’s Athletic on Friday night. The Boynesiders took Shamrock Rovers to a replay in the Cup before succumbing to a 3-0 defeat on Tuesday night where as Jeff Kenna’s side booked their place in the fourth round with a scrappy 1-0 win away to Limerick.

Jeff Kenna’s views

“Drogheda are a better side than people give them credit. They gave us a very tough game in Richmond earlier this season, we were 2-0 up but they never gave up, they pulled it back to 2-1 and had us under real pressure.

They have already beaten Cork and drawn with Rovers and so are well capable of putting it up to any team on their day. We’ve put in some decent performances in recent weeks, the more wins you get the more confidence you build up so I’m hoping we can continue that form into the break.”

Team News

Glen Fitzpatrick made his return to action last week against Limerick and this week sees the return from injury of Jamie Harris, Jason Gavin and Gareth O’Connor. Damien Lynch damaged his ankle last week against Limerick and is out until after the break along with Darragh Ryan (hamstring) Alan Cawley (ankle), Gary Dempsey (leg), Mark Leech (leg) and Gints Freiman (knee).

Shane Barrett made an appearance on Tuesday as the striker is recovering from injury while Drogheda will be without the servces of Alan McNally and Steve Williams as both are not expected back until after the mid season break.

St Pats have beaten Drogheda twice in their last four meetings with Drogheda registering one win while a draw decided the other fixture. This season saw Matthews take his side to Inchicore and were unlucky to come away empty handed as teenagers William Woods and Eoghan Osborne made their league debuts.

Extratime Prediction: Score draw.