After last week’s 1-0 win over Galway United, Pete Mahon’s men face St Patrick’s Athletic at United Park on Friday night. The Drogs will hope to post back-to-back victories together in front of a large home crowd.
Club captain Killian Brennan will unfortunately miss the game after being ruled out for up to 10 weeks with a broken collarbone sustained at Eamonn Deacy Park.
Speaking on the club’s website, Mahon said, “It was a real shame for Killian’s debut to end like that, and I know that he was really looking forward to facing one of his former sides in St Pats on Friday. The timing could’ve been worse for us as we are still finding our feet, and it’ll give other players the opportunity to impress.”
“He’s been a big character for us so far in the dressing room, and we will be looking forward to when he can get back out into the pitch.”
On taking on Pats this week, Mahon said, “Teams don’t like coming to United Park as it is and we want that to continue throughout the year. Players complain that the pitch is too tight but it actually matches up with most in the country and it’s just the surroundings that give off that impression.”
“Our goal will be to win every home game this season because that’ll be the key to us having a successful season and staying in the Premier Division. We had a really good home record last season and we want to carry that on and make United Park a fortress.”
“I didn’t see the Pat’s game on Friday but I heard they were very poor on the night so you would expect a reaction from them. They have a lot of quality players in their squad and we’ll need to improve our performance level across the pitch if we are to get the right result.”
Liam Buckley’s men will look to bounce back from their defensive horror-show against Bray Wanderers in their opening fixture. Losing 2-1 doesn’t look bad on paper, but some sloppy defending didn’t help their cause. They will be without the suspended duo of Darren Dennehy and young 17 year-old Aidan Keena, after red-cards in that game.