Derry City -v- Mervue United

• Terry Flaherty
• Fri, Apr 09 2010


Third placed Derry City entertain a currently winless Mervue Utd at the Brandywell on Friday night hoping to close the gap on Waterford Utd at the top of the table. (kick off 7.45 p.m.)

Derry will look to continue their winning run having defeated both Longford and Athlone in their last two games, while Mervue will be looking to register their first win of the campaign having lost four on the bounce. Derry were very impressive 3-1 winners away to Longford last week, while Mervue were unlucky not to take points of the unbeaten league leaders Waterford Utd going down 3-2 in an excellent game of football at Terryland.

This will be the first league meeting in the history of the two clubs, though they have met previously in the second round of the FAI Cup when Mervue qualified as a non league club. On that occasion back in December 2001, a high flying Premier Division Derry City defeated the Galway side 2-0 with a goal in either half.

Derry have doubts over a number of the Derry forward line, with Stephen Parkhouse still out injured and Patrick McEleney picking up a knock after opening the scoring last week. David McDaid, Vinny Sweeney and Mark Farren will be vying for a place up front while club captain Kevin Deery returned from injury last week and will be pushing to start the game tonight. However Ruairi Harkin, who scored his first goal for the club last week, will be keen to hang onto his midfield berth.

Mervue will be missing Damien O’Rourke (unavailable) and David O’Dowd (sick) while both Nicky Curran and Gerry Burke will also miss the trip north having picked up injuries in last week’s game with Waterford. On the plus side both Eric Browne and Martin Conneely will return to defence, while Ollie Keogh is available again following his one match ban.

On last week’s unlucky defeat and this week’s game Mervue manager Tom French commented “Our last match against Waterford left us disappointed after putting in such a good performance. I thought we started the game well and seem to handle what they threw at us very well. Unfortunately for their first goal we had two chances to clear the ball but choose to take it down and got punished. After that it took us a while to settle again but when we got the goal and started playing with a bit more composure.”

“We are looking forward to travelling to Derry tonight and using what we have learnt and hopefully put in a good performance against one of the best sides in the country. We know it will be no easy task but we feel if we perform as we have been, we will get something out of the game. The lads know we have what it takes to start moving up the league and that’s what we will be doing tonight”, French concluded.

An important game for both sides for contrasting reasons with both at either ends of the table. Derry will be hoping for all three points to keep the pressure on Waterford Utd while Mervue will be keen to put a first three points on the table.

Venue: The Brandywell
Referee: R. Rogers
paddypower.com odds: Derry City 2/9 Draw 4/1 Limerick 9/1

Derry City
Suspended: none
Injured: Stephen Parkhouse
Doubtful: Patrick McEleney

Mervue United
Suspended: none
Injured: David O’Dowd, Nicky Curran, Gerry Burke.
Unavailable: Damien O’Rourke

Extratime Prediction: 2-1 to the home side.