League Preview: Bohemians -v- St Patrick's Athletic
Declan McDaid of Bohemian FC in action against Pico Lopes of Shamrock Rovers during the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division match between Rovers and Bohs at Tallaght Stadium on March 29, 2024 Credit: Thomas Flinkow (ETPhotos)
BOHEMIANS
Bohemians will be looking to get back into the top four and also improve on their recent record of one win in five matches when they have home advantage in Friday night’s fixture against St Patricks Athletic, kick off in Dalymount Park is at 7.45pm.
Bohs currently sit one place and one point off a top four slot, but they do have two games in hand over the top three in the table, so will be looking to close the gap on all three when they face Stephen Kenny’s side.
They had a comprehensive 3-0 win away at Sligo Rovers last weekend, but prior to that they had only manged to pick up a single point against three of the top four sides, losing to both Galway Utd and Derry City and drawing with Shamrock Rovers.
The manner of win at the Showgrounds will be a big boost to manager Alan Reynolds as they scored three goals, the first time this season they have managed that feat.
Winger Dayle Rooney put in a man of the match performance in Sligo, providing the assists for James Clarke and Aboubacar Keita to put them two ahead and he crowned a great personal performance with a cracking goal that made in three nil in the 61st minute.
Reynolds is well aware of the threat posed by Friday nights opponents, a point he emphasised when he spoke to the Bohs media team this week. He said’ ’Pat’s are a good side. They finished third last year and won the FAI Cup and you don’t become a bad team overnight.
“They have quality players who can hurt any team in this league so we will need to be at our very best to get a result against them.”
He added: “The support we had down in Sligo was brilliant, and that’s what we will need again for a game like this against a team as good as St Pat’s.
“We have seen in games this season that when the crowd is behind us, our players are spurred on by that.
“Our players know that there is an onus on them to perform at home but we all have our jobs to do, and we need our fans to be loud and, on our side right from the start.”
ST PATRICKS ATHLETIC
St Patricks Athletic fans will be hoping its third time lucky when they travel to Phibsborough on Friday night as the expected new manager bounce never materialised with Stephen Kenny’s first two matches in charge resulting in defeats.
Losses to Derry City and Shelbourne mean Kenny is still waiting for his first win at his new club and with an extra week on the grass working with his squad he will be hoping that he gets off the mark with three points against Bohs on Friday night.
Pats almost got a point against Shelbourne on Monday night but a last gasp Evan Caffrey goal for Shels saw them lose 2-1 and that means Pats are now languishing in seventh place on the table, with all three teams below them all having two games in hand.
Kenny was in a positive frame of mind however when he spoke to the Pats media team this week , saying: "I thought the players were tremendous against Shelbourne and we didn't deserve the lose the game in the way that we did with 20 seconds to go.
"After Jake Mulraney's brilliant free-kick, and in the period after the goal, we looked like the team that would go on to win it, but we shouldn't concede the goal that we did, we should have defended it better, everyone is very disappointed but the players can learn from that.
"The players have given everything in the two games so far and I'm pleased with them.
"We've faced the top two teams in the league at the moment (Derry and Shelbourne) in my first two matches and there was very little in the games, both were very evenly contested.
"I've been very encouraged by a lot of what I saw, and the players can take confidence from that.
"I've only come in since last Thursday and we had two games in three days on Friday and Monday and we've got another big game on Friday, so the players have had some recovery time, and we had our training session on Thursday to get ready for the Bohs game."
Referee: Robert Harvey
MATCH STATS
This will be the 192nd meeting between these two sides on Friday night.
The sides have been fairly evenly matched over the course of all those matches, with Bohs winning 33% of the clashes, Pats winning 39% and 28% ending up as draws.
The Saints have been the more dominant side in recent times, winning seven of the last 11 games in all competitions, and, more notably, winning the 2021 (on penalties) and 2023 FAI Cup Finals against the Gypsies.
Bohs however did win the first league game of the season between the two sides back in February, an 85th minute Jordan Flores goal giving them all three points.
PREDICTION
Bohemians 1 - 2 St Patrick's Athletic
Bohemians
Injured: Keith Buckley, Rob Cornwall, Brian McManus, Dayle Rooney, Luke Matheson, Jordan Flores.
Doubtful: None
Suspended: James Clarke
St Patricks Athletic
Injured: Alex Sjoberg
Doubtful: Anto Breslin
Suspended: Conor Keeley
