President's Cup Preview: Dundalk -v- St Patrick's Athletic

The 2015 League of Ireland season begins at Oriel Park, the home of reigning league champions Dundalk who will be looking to add the President's Cup to their trophy cabinet against St. Patrick's Athletic (kick-off 3pm).

DUNDALK

As well as winning a first league title in 19 years, the Lilywhites also triumphed in the EA Sports Cup in 2014 thanks to a 3-2 victory over Shamrock Rovers in Oriel, while they narrowly missed out on the Setanta Sports Cup after losing the final 1-0 to Sligo Rovers in Tallaght Stadium.

Stephen Kenny's men have already claimed their first trophy of the current campaign, a 2-0 victory over Drogheda United in Oriel giving them their first Jim Malone Cup success in five years. They had to win that derby without Stephen O'Donnell and Kenny will have to prepare without his skipper once again as he is set to go under the knife on Tuesday to repair the torn cartilage in his right knee – an injury which could rule him out for up to eight weeks.

Dane Massey looks set to miss out too as he has a broken bone in his hand, but Sean Gannon and Paddy Barrett could feature having recovered from a thigh strain and an ankle knock respectively. John Mountney will come back into the squad having missed the Drogheda game, with Daryl Horgan joining him after coming off the bench against Drogs to set up young forward Ciaran O'Connor for the second goal last week.

Dundalk have gone through pre-season unbeaten, winning four – including a 2-1 victory over UCD in the Leinster Senior Cup – and drawing one of their five games, scoring 16 times in the process while conceding just three.

Speaking to Extratime.ie at the official launch of the 2015 SSE Airtricity League in the Aviva Stadium, Kenny said: “It's a great game to start with. I'm in favour of the President's Cup, it's a good concept. League winners and cup winners, I think it's terrific. I think ourselves and St. Pat's are two of the teams that are obviously going to fancy getting to the right end of the table to challenge for the league title, so it's an interesting opener, I think.

“The games [against Pat's last season] were contrasted: 0-0 [at Oriel], we had some great chances in that; 4-1 [at Richmond Park] was a comprehensive win; and 1-0, we didn't create enough in that one in Inchicore. So the teams are evenly matched and it'll be an interesting game.”

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC

FAI Cup holders St. Patrick's Athletic travel to Oriel Park for the season curtain-raiser against Dundalk having scored 16 times without reply in four pre-season games.

This run included a 7-0 thumping of LSL side Tolka Rovers in the Leinster Senior Cup in Pat's first game since they ended a 53 year wait for FAI Cup glory with a 2-0 victory over Derry City at the Aviva Stadium in November. Liam Buckley's side didn't stop there as they welcomed Cabinteely FC to the League of Ireland by unceremoniously putting six past them in Inchicore.

The Saints head into the match seeking to retain the trophy they won as league winners last season – they defeated Sligo Rovers 1-0 in the inaugural President's Cup clash at Richmond Park thanks to Keith Fahey's tap in. Should they beat Dundalk, they would become the first team to retain the trophy.

Buckley is waiting on four players going into the game, with Kenny Browne and Ger O'Brien battling to overcome thigh and hamstring strains, while two products of the Saints' u19 team, Jack Bayly and Jamie McGrath, are trying to shake off groin strains.

However, Lee Desmond is set to be included in the squad after missing last weekend's friendly between a home-based Republic of Ireland u21 side and the Amateur Ireland international team through injury.

Speaking to Extratime.ie at the launch of the 2015 SSE Airtricity League, Buckley spoke about the importance of laying proper foundations in pre-season to ensure optimum performance from his squad over the course of what is going to be a long campaign for the Saints: 
 

“You can be stymied a wee bit with suspensions or a couple of injuries, and if you're not covered it can be a problem, so hopefully we'll get through the season better than we did last year,” said Buckley.

“We had quite a lot of injuries last year, so we're looking at that in relation to how we're planning our pre-season with regards to injury prevention and all that sort of stuff, so hopefully we can get through the campaign better.”

MATCH STATS

Dundalk and St. Patrick's Athletic faced off four times last season (three times in the Premier Division and once in the Leinster Senior Cup). Pat's won twice, Dundalk won once and the other game was a draw. Spoils in the Premier Division were shared – one win each and a draw – but Pat's won the LSC clash 2-1 in Inchicore – with Drogheda United's newest signing Daryl Kavanagh getting the winning goal in the 73^rd minute.

Should he feature, the 2015 President's Cup will be Ian Bermingham's 200^th game for Pat's.

Both sides have scored 16 goals in pre-season, but Pat's have done it in a game less and without conceding a goal.

BETTING

Dundalk 11/8; Draw 11/5; St. Patrick's Athletic 13/8.

PREDICTION 

Dundalk 1 – 2 St. Patrick's Athletic

Dundalk
Injured: Stephen O'Donnell.
Doubtful: Dane Massey.
Suspended: none.

St. Patrick's Athletic
Injured: none.
Doubtful: Kenny Browne, Ger O'Brien, Jack Bayly, Jamie McGrath.
Suspended: none.