Credit:
UCD -v- St. Patrick's Athletic
- Colman Hanley
- Sun, May 29 2011
Scholars face Saints at the Belfield Bowl with UCD aiming to continue their good run of results against St. Pats and move clear of the relegation zone (kick-off 7:45pm).
The bogey side of the Inchicore side for many years, UCD have defeated the Saints at the Bowl in three of their four meetings since moving to the venue in 2008. The Saints’ only victory at the venue came in their first league game in Belfield when they ran out 3-0 winners.
The Students can also take heart from their 1-1 draw at Richmond Park earlier in the season. The 94th minute goalscorer on that night, Graham Rusk, returned from injury in last Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to Bohemians along with Cillian Morrison, and both will be pushing for a place in UCD’s starting eleven.
“The Pats visit gives us a right test,” stated UCD manager Russell, a league winner with the Saints in 1999. “There were positives to be taken from the Bohemians game even though we lost. We will be looking to bring them into our match against St Pats and continue our development while picking up more points.”
The home support are likely to see a lot of familiar faces on show as one time UCD manager Pete Mahon has former UCD players Evan McMillan, Dave McMillan, Brian Shortall, Ian Bermingham, Derek Doyle, Shane McFaul and Anto Murphy all in with a chance of making an appearance.
With the games coming thick and fast for the Saints, Assistant Manager John Gill admits that rotation is likely to come into play for the clash with UCD. “While we had hoped to try and freshen things up over the next few games, it looks like we will be forced into changes with the injuries.”
As a result, Dave Mulcahy could return to the Saints’ starting line-up having made his return to first team action in the Saints 2-1 win over Sligo Rovers as a substitute, the Kilkenny native has not started since the clash with the Students on April 15th.
“We have to bring Thursday’s performance into tomorrow night’s game and we have enough respect for UCD to know that they can produce a performance that will give us a lot of difficulties tomorrow,” Gill commented to stpatsfc.com.
“We’ve managed to get ourselves right back into the mix with our last eight or nine results but every point is crucial and no game is more important than the next one.”
Mahon’s men are in fine form and boast a ten game unbeaten record, with seven wins in their last eight games. The Inchicore side’s good form means they enter the game only three points behind league leaders and local rivals, Shamrock Rovers.
The situation contrasts greatly to Martin Russell’s young side, who will be hoping to end their three game consecutive losing run and move away from relegation candidates Galway United and Drogheda United.
UCD
Injured: None.
Doubtful: Robbie Creevy (ankle).
Suspended: Michael Leahy.
St. Patrick’s Athletic
Injured: Conor Kenna (knee).
Doubtful: Neil Harney (muscle), Anto Murphy (hamstring).
Suspended: None.
Referee: Rob Rogers
Paddy Power Odds: UCD 3/1; Draw 9/4; Saint Patrick’s Athletic 10/11.
Extratime prediction: Saints to do just enough, 0-1.
About Colman Hanley
Colman Hanley has yet to write anything about themselves but click on the bio link to view all past work.