General
- Thursday March 30th, 2023 @ 12:00
Preview: St Pat's Vs UCD (31/03/23)
Another packed Richmond Park will see the meeting of St Patrick's Athletic and UCD on Friday night.
Kick off in Inchicore is at 7.45pm.
The Main Stand and Patron Stand are sold out, some tickets still remain available for The Camac Terrance, we encourage all supporters to buy these online via our website HERE to avoid disappointment.
Those not attending the game will be able to watch it live on LOITV, coverage begins at 7.30pm.
St Pat's come into the match off the back of a thrilling 2-2 draw away to Shamrock Rovers before the international break, an Eoin Doyle (penalty) and a Jake Mulraney cracker secured a point for Tim Clancy's side in front of over 7,000 fans, including a sold out away end, at Tallaght Stadium.
Goalkeeper Dean Lyness made two outstanding saves on his debut to help his new club to a point.
It was a busy international break for a number of St Pat's players. Tommy Lonergan and Sam Curtis both featured in all three of Ireland U19s European Championship qualifiers in Wexford, with 17-year-old Curtis also making his Ireland U21 debut. Sam started for Jim Crawford's side and played the full 90 minutes in a 2-1 friendly win over Iceland in Cork.
Fellow Super Saint Jay McGrath was on the bench for that game, while 17-year-old Adam Murphy was also part of the Ireland U21 training squad last week.
All four players have return to club training this week and are available for selection.
Jamie Lennon is available again after suspension but Danny Rogers, Harry Brockbank and Tom Grivosti will all miss the game through injury.
Head To Head
This is the 83rd League of Ireland match between St Pat's and UCD, with The Saints winning 37 of them so far, 33 have been draws while The Students have come out on top 12 times.
St Pat's won all four league meetings between the teams last season, but all of them were tight affairs.
Eoin Doyle and Mark Doyle scored in a 2-0 win at Richmond last March, before an OG and a late Ben McCormack winner secured the points at the UCD Bowl in a 2-1 victory in April.
Pat's won the final two meetings, both 2-1. Eoin Doyle netted on the double in Inchicore in June before Thijs Timmermans and Serge Atakayi were on target in Belfield in August.
Andy Myler's side have one point from their opening six games, that came on the opening night of the new season thanks to a 1-1 draw away to Dundalk.
"I've settled in really well" - Lyness
Goalkeeper Dean Lyness made a brilliant debut against Shamrock Rovers last time out, the 31-year-old, who only joined the club earlier this month, made two outstanding late saves to help his team to a point.
He's been helping us look ahead to tomorrow's game at home to UCD, you can watch the full interview on our Youtube channel.
"I've really enjoyed my few weeks at the club so far and loved the game against Shamrock Rovers.
Everyone has helped me settle in and I've enjoyed it so far. The atmospheres and environments at the games have been really good, it's up to us on the pitch to give the fans something to shout about and that's what we'll be looking to do on Friday.
We want to win the game, that's the aim against whoever we play, we know what to expect from UCD, we have to win the battle as you have to do in any game and earn the right to play our football and that's what we'll be looking to do."
Assistant Manager Jon Daly joined Lyness on media duty at Richmond Park this week, you can also watch his full interview on our YouTube channel.
"I've watched all of UCD's game since the start of the season, they are bottom of the table without a win so far but they play good football, they've got lots of talented young players and in their squad and their definitely pose a threat.
They are a fit team and are fierce competitors as we saw in the matches against them last season. We'll be giving them the respect they are due but we need to make sure we go out and do what we want to do.
We have to make sure that we are at it from the start and play our own game, we want to start the game fast and try to get on top.
It's important that we take our chances, we haven't taken all of our chances in some of the games so far and that's made things difficult so hopefully we can do that."
Team News:
Jamie Lennon returns from suspension but Danny Rogers (thumb), Tom Grivosti (hamstring), Harry Brockbank (calf) are all unavailable for the game. Jay McGrath, Sam Curtis, Tommy Lonergan and Adam Murphy have all returned to training following international duty. Manager Tim Clancy will serve a one match touchline ban.
Image credit: Sportsfile
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