Preview: Rovers face Pat’s as season end nears

Sligo Rovers meet St Patrick’s Athletic on Friday night as third meets second in the SSE Airtricity Premier Division at Richmond Park.

The Bit O’Red recorded back-to-back wins in the last seven days to remain in third spot, with the aim of a highest finish since the 2013 campaign.

The teams have faced off three times this season with one win each and a draw in the Showgrounds ahead of this final game.

Johnny Kenny and Ryan De Vries were on target in the last meeting of the teams.

The match will be live on RTE2 and RTE Player.

In injury news, Shane Blaney and Colm Horgan are available again.

Regan Donelon will have a late fitness test. Danny Kane is ruled out for the rest of the season.

Liam Buckley said: “We’ve had four days in between the Longford game and this one so we’ve had enough time to recover. We had a few players to assess afterwards and they’ve come through it in the main.

“It was important to pick up the two wins in the last week. It’s extremely difficult to win any game in this league and we’ve stuck at it. They were hard fought which isn’t a surprise and it’s going to take another big shift on Friday.

“We’ve scored late goals recently and in truth it doesn’t matter when we score as long as the goals come. Late goals have gone against us earlier in the season – including when Ian Bermingham did so in one of these games – so it was good to be on the right side of it.

“We did well in the recent game in Sligo and when you look back overall it shows the teams are well-matched.

“It is one game at a time for ourselves. We’re trying to put as many points on the board as possible and a win would certainly help us in the race that we’re in.

“St Pat’s have done well, they play a good brand of football and they’re up there in second place with the FAI Cup final to come. I think they’ve won 12 out of 16 at home, they could have had more goals against Bohemians in the first half the other night when they went 2-0 up.

“But we’ve done alright ourselves and we’ve been in the top three for a long time. It’ll be tight and we go there looking for another good result.”