St. Patrick's Athletic -v- Drogheda United

• Eoin Manning
• Thu, Apr 16 2009


It will be a real case of ‘you think things are going bad for you?’ when Alan Matthews brings basement club Drogheda United to Richmond Park to take on Jeff Kenna’s struggling St. Patrick’s Athletic in the FAI Eircom League of Ireland Premier Division on Friday night (Kick Off 7:45 pm).

Drogheda sit rock bottom of the division with two points from their opening seven games and the 2007 League Champions are already five points adrift of ninth placed Bray Wanderers, A club who have left an indelible mark on St.Pat’s season also.

A last gasp winner at the Carlisle Grounds a fortnight ago triggered an alarming run of results for Kenna’s side which has seen them concede eight goals in three games, scoring just once. Transforming the Dublin giants from would be title contenders into, according to their manager, potential relegation fodder.

Kenna is only too aware that his side have underperformed this year but has asked for patience form the home crowd: “With three recent defeats it’s been a difficult week or so for the team so we need to get a win under our belts. A big overall improvement is needed and we need to get back to the level of defending that helped to bring us wins against Cork and Sligo.”

Adding: “We have to make Richmond Park a difficult place to come to and while it’s been tough on the Pats fans I would ask them to play their part and get behind the team on Friday night.” Though he remains acutely aware of the threat posed by the visiting side: “Drogheda have had a difficult start to season, a good win from earlier in the week has given them something to build on and we will need to treat them with respect”

Matthews has urged his players to take games one at a time and not worry about the table yet: “There’s too many matches ahead to start looking at positions of clubs that are comfortably away from you.”

The Drogs mounting injury list now contains Robbie Martin, Robbie Farrell, John Paul Kelly, Alan McNally, and Shane Barrett, though they will go in to the game with slightly renewed confidence gained from their EA Sports Cup victory over Bray on Monday.

Pat’s will once again be without long-term absentees Gary Dempsey and Mark Leech, While Gints Friemanis, Noel Haverty and Bobby Ryan are rated as major doubts. Stephen Maher is also not yet fit either following his pre-season knee ligament injury suffered during the game with Birmingham City.

The health of Glen Fitzpatrick remains a concern and will not be risked for the game while Dave Partridge is suspended following his red card at Bohemians last Saturday night.

Though given Kenna’s penchant for making widespread changes on a weekly basis it is still very difficult to predict his starting eleven even with such limited numbers.

This is unquestionably a game the home side will look to win to get their season back on track but, their form has been so patchy thus far Matthew’s team would be easily forgiven for eying the game as a potential scalp as they search for their first league win of the season at the seventh attempt.

Drogheda are a club with problems that will continue far beyond the fixture whereas defeat for St. Pat’s and manager Jeff Kenna will make an already restless Inchicore crowd particularly uneasy.