General
- Sunday October 9th, 2011 @ 16:34
'TIMING' MEANS MAHON WILL SHUFFLE HIS DECK
St Patrick's Athletic will go into tomorrow's (Monday) Leinster Senior Cup Final with Bohemians at Dalymount Park (kick off 7.45 pm) with one eye on Friday's FAI Cup Semi Final with Shelbourne.
Pete Mahon is expecting to make up to ten changes from the side that defeated Sligo Rovers on Saturday night but is still anxious to win the Saints' first senior trophy since the League Cup in 2003.
Team News:
While Seán O'Connor is expected to be out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury he will be joined on the sidelines by Dave Mulcahy (hamstring) and Derek Doyle (flu) who both started against Sligo Rovers.
Shane McFaul missed that game with a virus but may play some part in Dalymount after resting for the weekend.
First team players Chris Bennion, Neil Harney, Jake Carroll and Seán Stewart are likely to start while youngsters Matt Holland and John O'Connor who have been on the bench in recent weeks are likely to play some part also.
Mahon may also look to his Under 19 squad with Niall Lanigan, Conor Pepper, Eoin Hyland, Niall Conran and Robbie Cornwall all in contention for a place in the squad.
Pete Mahon:
"The timing of the game is unfortunate in that it's the week of the FAI Cup Semi-Finals.
“That means we're going to have make a number of changes and that doesn't really do the competition the justice it deserves.
"We'll be playing three games in seven days this week and there's no way you can use the same players in all three at this stage of the season.
"Shels also played last night so they'll have time to recover before Friday and Bohs don't play in their FAI Cup Semi-Final until Sunday so they're not too bad either.
"In saying that the final had to played at some point so if it wasn't this week then next week may not have suited either so we just have to get on with it.
"Even though we'll be making a lot of changes we entered this competition because we wanted to win it and that's exactly what we'll be looking to do.
"We don't have enough bodies to give everybody a rest but there will certainly be 9 or 10 changes and some of the Under 19 squad will come into the squad too.
"We lost a cup final last season against Bohemians in the Setanta Cup so it would be nice to bring a bit of silverware back to Richmond."
