Sligo Rovers head to Dublin for the first time this season on Friday as the Bit O’Red take on St Patrick’s Athletic in the final series of fixtures of the opening round of this year’s Premier Division.
Kick-off at Richmond Park is 7.45pm as Rovers go in search of a first win in four following recent narrow losses to Shelbourne, Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers. The hosts provide what is probably the toughest test in Irish football at the moment having won four of their last five, are unbeaten in six and have the best home record to date this season so far.
Rovers won the last game between the sides last September at the Showgrounds, but are without victory in Inchicore since May 2023 although there have been some very tight games between the clubs since.
John Russell prepares for this Good Friday outing without a number of players.
Sean McHale will not be available due to the terms of his loan. As of Thursday morning, Conor Reynolds (pelvis) and Ryan O’Kane (arm) will miss the trip to the capital. While Ciaron Harkin is out with a muscle strain.
Daire Patton will be given a fitness test as he continues to recover from recent illness. Russell is hopeful Jad Hakiki and Shane Blaney will return to training next week and may be fit in time to face Bohs on April 10th, but both will sit out the Pat’s game.
Sean Stewart (ankle) is a doubt.
“Pat’s are in incredibly hot form at the moment”, Russell tells sligorovers.com as we face into a double header weekend with Derry set to visit the Showgrounds on Easter Monday.
“Although we’re heading there without a few bodies, this is a game we are looking forward to following what’s been a very valuable few days. This weekend is a big opportunity for some players to make their mark and we’ll be asking them to do just that.
“Our recent games with Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk and Shelbourne were fairly tight affairs. None of them dominated us and particularly in the Dundalk and Shels game, we were really pleased with how many chances we created. It’s just about taking those opportunities.
“We see enough of the players every day to have full confidence in their abilities to create and score goals. In our last two games, we hit the crossbar and post and the opposition had players throwing themselves at the ball inside their own area to stop us scoring.
“It will happen for us, we just need to keep working hard and keep to what we’re doing.
“We always have a good crowd with us in Inchicore and we’re looking forward to getting out there in front of them again. It’ll be a busy weekend with two really big tests for us.”
David Goulden