Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
St. Patrick's Athletic -v- UCD
- Colman Hanley
- Sun, Aug 07 2011
Saint Patrick's Athletic return to league duty against UCD following their midweek exit in the Europa League and as they look to move within two points of the top of the Airtricity League, kick-off 3pm.
The Saints return to Richmond Park for the first time since the fallout between the players and club management over bonuses due to the squad for their European victories over both IBV Vestmannaeyjar of Iceland and Shaktar Karagandy of Kazakhstan.
However for Pat's manager Pete Mahon, the return to league action is a welcome proposition as they focus once more on staying in the title race. “Our attention is back on winning league games after the European campaign. We all got caught up on the hype and excitement, but we knew it would come to an end at some stage.”
“We all thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a great experience for myself, the players and the supporters. The most important thing now is to focus on the league and keeping in touch with the league leaders.”
The Inchicore side though will have to cope without top scorer Danny North who misses the game through suspension, while Stephen Bradley is a doubt having picked up an injury after 27 minutes in the midweek 3-1 defeat to Karpaty Lviv. In better news for the Saints, Seán O'Connor is available for selection and could make his debut having recently joined the club following his spell at Limerick.
UCD go into the game on the back of a three week break from league action, and their famous 4-3 victory over last year's Europa League semi-finalists, Spanish side Villarreal. The Students welcome back Graham Rusk and Darren Meenan from suspension, though Samir Belhout misses out as he serves a one match ban.
The Students will look to Rusk in particular to repeat his goalscoring exploits against the Saints after his 94th minute equaliser back in April earned Martin Russell's side a 1-1 draw in Richmond Park.
UCD will be hoping to get their first away win of the season in Dublin, and subsequently, pull away from the relegation zone after Drogheda United moved to within a point of the Students following their 2-1 victory over Bray Wanderers on Friday night.
St Patrick's Athletic
Injured: None
Doubtful: Stephen Bradley.
Suspended: Danny North.
UCD
Injured: None.
Doubtful: None.
Suspended: Samir Belhout.
Referee: Derek Tomney.
Ladbrokes Odds: St Pat's 1/3, Draw 10/3, UCD 7/1.
Extratime prediction: Pat's to do just enough, 2-1.
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