General
- Thursday March 31st, 2011 @ 11:13
SAINTS LOOKING FOR MOMENTUM
St Patrick's Athletic will be looking to build on last Friday's victory over Dundalk when they take on Bohemians tomorrow (Friday) at Richmond Park in the Airtricity League Premier Division (kick off 7.35)
Saints' Assistant Manager John Gill will take charge of the side with Pete Mahon absent due to the death of his mother this week.
TEAM NEWS
Gill will have to do without captain Conor Kenna who will miss the next six weeks with a knee injury. Also out is Brian Shortall who has suffered a recurrence of an ankle injury. He will now see a specialist this week to ascertain the extent of the injury.
On the attacking front Daryl Kavanagh and Ian Daly have recovered from hamstring and knee injuries respectively and return to the squad while Shane McFaul has shown no ill effects from the concussion he suffered against Dundalk and is in contention for a starting position.
McFaul will face competition from Paul Crowley who performed well after replacing McFaul against Dundalk and he will be looking for his first league start in a Pats' shirt.
JOHN GILL
The Saints completed a superb comeback against the Lillywhites and John Gill told STPATSFC.COM that he is hoping to bring that second half performance into this week's game:
"One thing that Pete Mahon has brought to the club since he arrived is a never say die attitude.
"We saw that in games last season against Fingal and Bohs, where we scored late goals, and we saw it again last week.
"What we're trying to do this season is to add a bit more quality to the side while maintaining the level of effort and commitment that was there last season.
"We were disappointed with how the game went up until we went two down last week but you also have to give Dundalk some credit because they're a good side.
"We turned it around and what we will do this week is look to carry that momentum into Friday's game.
"We've been a little unlucky with injuries over the past couple of weeks and again we have two central defenders injured.
"We let Shane Guthrie go on loan to Dundalk in order to free up some of the budget to bring in players in other positions as we felt we were well covered at centre half. We didn't want to let Shane go on loan but the days of just writing an extra cheque for an extra player are gone.
"The thoughts of all the staff and the players and everybody at the club are with Pete this week.
"It's a very hard time for him, as it is for anybody who loses a parent, no matter what age they are."
TRIVIA
The Saints are currently the top scorers in the Airtricity League Premier Division with their eight goals. Half of those goals have been scored by the McMillan brothers, David and Evan, both scoring two goals apiece.
This means that the McMillans have scored more goals in the opening four fixtures than Sligo Rovers, UCD, Galway United or Drogheda United.
The brothers scored ten league goals between them for UCD last season with David coming out on top with seven to Evan's three.
