General
- Thursday May 12th, 2016 @ 17:34
Team News: ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC Vs Longford Town (Friday, 8pm)
St Patrick's Athletic host Longford Town on Friday night in the SSE Airtricity League as they look for a second win in the space of four days this week (kick-off 8pm).
Pat's will be looking for a repeat performance from their midweek 3-0 win over Galway United which saw Supersaints Sean Hoare, Billy Dennehy and Conan Byrne all find the back of the net.
Opponents Longford Town travel to Richmond Park in search of three points, Tony Cousins' side looking to move themselves off the bottom of the league table and bounce back from a midweek defeat to Wexford Youths.
Speaking to stpatsfc.com ahead of Friday's televised game on Setanta Sports Ireland, Saints' manager Liam Buckley emphasised the importance for his players to continue on from where they left off in Galway.
"I was delighted with the result the other night. We didn't play well for the full game, but when he created chances, we were that bit more clinical in front of goal so the players deserve great credit for that.
"The players however also know that we have to now continue that form and replicate that week in, week out. Longford are next up on Friday and we won't get anything easy from them. We had a very tough game in Longford back in March and we're again expecting a similar match, so we've got to be at it from the first whistle on Friday night."
In team news, Buckley remains without the services of injured trio Christy Fagan, Conor O'Malley and Jack Bayly, while Graham Kelly also misses out through suspension having been sent off during the week.
For Republic of Ireland U21 defender Sean Hoare, a goal during the week, a clean sheet and a win was the perfect scenario for him. The defender admits however that the Inchicore side need to use that to create some momentum.
"The main thing during the week was to get back to winning ways. We did that so that was the main objective," Hoare told stpatsfc.com.
"Getting a goal is always nice though so I'll always take that. The great thing about winning when there's a lot of games coming up is that you can feed off that positive energy so we're looking forward to getting back out there against Longford."
"Longford under Tony Cousins are a team that will always really work hard so you have to match them for that. That being said though, we know at home in Richmond Park that we can turn over teams so we've just got to make sure we play to our strengths and hopefully the result will follow."
