General
- Thursday April 23rd, 2015 @ 18:30
Team News: St Pat's Vs Sligo Rovers
St Patrick's Athletic are back in SSE Airtricity League action on Friday night as they host Sligo Rovers in Richmond Park as they look to return to winning ways (kick-off 7.45pm).
The Saints will be looking to claim all three points against the Bit O' Red following Monday's 2-2 draw at home to Drogheda United, while similarly Sligo will be looking for a second away win of the season and improve on their 0-0 draw with Bohemian FC last Monday.
Speaking to stpatsfc.com ahead of the game, Saints' skipper Ger O'Brien admitted that the side were keen to "bounce back" from the midweek result against the Boynesiders which saw the Saints lose a 2-1 lead in the final 10 minutes.
"We go into Friday's game looking to bounce back from the other night. We felt it was two points dropped to be honest. It was a frustrating result as we missed a few chances to kill off and then for them to score, it was disappointing."
However despite the result, O'Brien feels that the Inchicore are making progress and pointed to the positives to take into Friday's game against Sligo. "Even though we drew, I felt we played well. The encouraging thing is we're creating chances. If we keep doing that and start taking our chances, we'll get that rhythm back and hopefully it'll be on Friday."
"Sligo are a good side and from knowing Owen Heary having played with him, he'll get it right there with a little bit more time to work the new players and new surroundings.
It's always important that young manager get that support, and with people like Liam O'Brien and Joseph Ndo working with thim there, we know we'll have to be at our best to get a result."
In team news, the Saints will give a late fitness test to Christy Fagan as he recovers from a knee injury. Elsewhere, Cyril Guedje has returned to full training from a hamstring injury and he is back in contention to feature.
"Games between ourselves and Sligo have been really entertaining affairs in the past few years," Saints' manager Liam Buckley told stpatsfc.com.
"We've had some top of the table clashes, games of really open football and the standard has always been top quality.
I'd expect nothing different on Friday and the players know what to expect on the night. We'll be looking to improve on a few things and hopefully get three points on the night."
