St. Patrick's Athletic -v- Galway United

• Eoin Manning
• Fri, Mar 05 2010


A greatly changed St.Patrick’s Athletic it may be, but, avoiding a fifth successive defeat to Galway United will be the order of the day at Inchicore on Friday night for Pete Mahon and Co. as the curtain raises on the 2010 Airtricity League Premier Division season (kick off 7:45)

As the football watching public simmer with anticipation, it will be time for the talking to stop and for Mahon’s new recruits to attempt to put in to practice everything they were taught over the cold winter months and in-turn warm the hearts of supporters.

The encounter provides a mirror image of last year’s opening day clash which Galway famously won 3-0 much to the dismay of their former and now former St.Pat’s manager Jeff Kenna.

The Saint’s domestic season never really recovered from the battering they took that evening, indeed, Kenna resigned his post as the club’s boss to avoid a fourth successive defeat to The Tribesmen on the eve of the Dublin club’s second journey west of the season.

With Sean Connor now at the helm at Galway, he will have a few scores to settle of his own with the Dublin club as his Dundalk outfit were themselves turned over on no less than three occasions by the Saints in the 2009 campaign.

With pride on the line and new players on both sides of the fence eager to make a big impression it should certainly be lively.

Venue: Richmond Park, Inchicore

Referee: P. Sutton

Paddypower.com odds: St.Pat’s 4/6, Galway9/2, Draw 23/10.

St.Pat’s:
Injured: Noel Haverty
Doubtful: None.
Suspended: None.

Galway:
Injured: Alan Murphy.
Doubtful: None.
Suspended: Bobby Ryan.

Extratime.ie prediction: 2-1 to the hosts.