General
- Thursday August 11th, 2011 @ 22:37
Team News: Saints Vs Derry
St Patrick’s Athletic travel to the Brandywell tomorrow (Friday) to take on Derry City in the Airtricity League.
TEAM NEWS
The Saints are without Gary Rogers and Shane McFaul who are serving suspensions following red cards against UCD last Sunday.
Pete Mahon must also plan without Anthony Murphy, while Stephen Bradley is still receiving treatment following an injury picked up against Karpaty Lviv and is rated very doubtful.
Danny North returns from suspension having missed the match against UCD.
PETE MAHON
“We are without a number of key players this week but the team won’t change too much from the UCD game.”
“Danny is back in the squad, and we will be looking for him and Daryl (Kavanagh) to rediscover their form as goals have dried up for them following their good run. In fact it was up in the Brandywell that their partnership first hit-off, so hopefully things will go well for them tomorrow night.”
Pete has a selection headache in defence with all eight defenders available for selection. “This is a good problem to have. Every manager wants players completing for positions and we have this all over the park. We’ve played seventeen games since the start of June, not including A championship games, and we have a number of midweek games in the coming weeks, so squad rotation is becoming very important in keeping players fresh and injury free.”
TRIVIA
This season, both games between the sides have finished 1-1. In both games Derry took the lead only for Danny North to equalise.
The last 15 games between the sides in the Brandywell have seen 2 wins for the Saints, 7 draws and 6 wins for the Candystripes (including 2 games in the Setanta Sports Cup).
Of the current Pats squad, only Anto Murphy and Dave Mulcahy have tasted victory for the Saints in Derry. Both played in the 1-0 win in March 2007, with Murphy heading home the winner.
The overall record between the sides since the start of the LOI summer season in 2003 reads; Games played 30, Pats wins 5, Derry wins 13 with 12 draws. Pats have scored 30 goals to Derry's 40 (26 of those games have been in the League, with 3 Setanta Sports Cup games and the 2006 FAI Cup Final).
This is 3rd away game in a row where Pats have faced the top three sides (losing 1-0 in Tallaght, and drawing 0-0 in Sligo). Before that Pats had won 6 away games in a row (since the 1-1 draw in Derry in April).
