St. Patrick's Athletic -v- Bray Wanderers

• Gareth Penrose
• Fri, May 29 2009


St Patrick’s Athletic take on Bray Wanderers at Richmond Park tomorrow night hoping to build on last week’s 1-0 win away to Dundalk (Kick-off: 19:45).

Bray have not won a game since the first of May when they defeated Shamrock Rovers by a single goal to nil. Since then they have lost three times, conceding six times without reply.

Earlier in the season, the Seagulls beat St. Pats. 2-1 at Carlisle Grounds. The Seagull's win was their first win over St. Pats in twelve meetings between the sides in all competitions.

Pat’s manager Jeff Kenna is not underextimating the Wicklow side. “Tomorrow night we’ll be looking to build on the two positive results against Sligo & Dundalk. However having lost to Bray already this season we know what they are capable of. They have a young eager team and with a few experienced heads in there as well they can beat anyone on their day, so we will need to be on our toes”.

The Saints will have to plan without Stuart Byrne (ankle ) and Alan Cawley (calf), both having picked up injuries against Dundalk. They join Gints Freimans (knee), Gary Dempsey (leg) and Mark Leech (leg) on the sidelines. Damian Lynch returns from injury and is available for selection. Bobby Ryan continues his recovery and is expected to play this weekend for the reserves.

Bray managaer Eddie Gormley is looking for his side to improve, having lost out last week to Cork. "Last Friday was disappointing, but Cork are a very good side and hard to live with. It was good experience for the players, starting out at the beginning of the season anything you got from Cork would be a bonus". He added "We need to improve and go to St. Patricks and give it a good go".

Bray’s long term injury victim Derek Pender is ruled out once again. His ankle injury is slow healing but he is expected to return to the squad in about two weeks. The good news for Eddie Gormley is that Gary McCabe who missed the Cork game last Friday with a calf injury is fit to return to the squad.

Extratime.ie Prediction: Bray to end May with another loss. 2-1