General
- Sunday September 29th, 2024 @ 12:00
Match Preview: Shels Vs Saints (30/09/24)
The Saints will play their second Dublin derby in four days this Monday evening as they face leaders Shelbourne at Tolka Park.
Kick-off is at 7.15pm, the away allocation of 500 tickets sold out within seconds of going on sale, the game will be live on RTÉ 2 and the RTE Player in Ireland and LOITV outside Ireland.
The Saints come into this game off the back of an excellent performance at Tallaght Stadium against Shamrock Rovers on Friday, which resulted in a 3-0 win.
Stephen Kenny's men were ahead with less than a minute on the clock, as a Jake Mulraney corner found Captain Joe Redmond at the back post to give his side an early lead.
It was Mulraney who went from creator to scorer for the second, with his strike nestling into the top corner of the net in the 13th minute after a brilliant turn from Mason Melia in the build-up.
Redmond made a goal-saving block with Joe Anang also making an excellent save to deny Graham Burke as Pat's led 2-0 at the break, and could have been further ahead but for a great stop from Leon Phols to stop Zack Elbouzedi's close range effort.
With just over half an hour to play, Mulraney struck again, cutting inside onto his favoured left foot and side-footing the ball into the bottom left to give the Saints a 3-0 lead, Brandon Kavanagh supplied the assist, his 12th of the campaign, the most in the League.
Friday's result made it an impressive run of five wins and one draw in the last six Premier Division games for the Inchicore side, including four victories in a row and 16 points from the last 18 available.
The Saints now sit in 6th place in the Premier Division, with 44 points from 31 games, five points off Shamrock Rovers in third place with a game in hand (tonight) on the Tallaght side, three points at Tolka would move Pat's seven points behind leaders Shelbourne with four matches to play.
OPPOSITION WATCH:
This Monday's fixture will be our 150th league meeting with Shelbourne and the tale of the tape is a close call.
St Pat's have won 55, there have been 25 draws and Shelbourne have won 59 times.
The Reds are top of the Premier Division, with 54 points from their 31 games.
The last meeting between these sides was on May 20th, with Shelbourne winning 2-1 at Richmond Park.
Sean Boyd's first half goal had Shels in front before Jake Mulraney equalised in the 73rd minute with a cracking free-kick. Evan Caffrey then popped up with a 96th minute winner to steal the three points at the death.
The previous game between these sides was on April 26th in Tolka Park and Shels ran out 1-0 winners on the night, thanks to a goal from John Martin.
The first meeting of this season was a close encounter, with Shels winning 2-1 at Richmond Park on March 15th.
A second half Will Jarvis double put the Drumcondra men 2-0 up, before Jake Mulraney pulled a goal back with a clever header from Brandon Kavanagh's free-kick.
Despite a strong second half showing, Pat's couldn't find an equaliser.
These sides faced off four times in the league in 2023, with three wins for Pat's (all 1-0) and one victory for Shels.
All three of Pat's wins were courtesy of set piece goals from Eoin Doyle (in February), Sam Curtis (in May) and Jake Mulraney (in June).
KENNY: "We need to be sure that we are ready"
Manager Stephen Kenny has been looking ahead to a second Dublin derby in the space of just four days:
"It was an exceptional performance by the players on Friday in Tallaght, we were very happy with how we played but this is a completely different game against Shelbourne so Friday will have no relevance to what happens tomorrow night.
We've got to turn things around quickly for a different challenge and make sure that we have a level of intensity in our performance after the quick turnaround.
We'll have to adapt quickly in the game and deal with the conditions too. The players have recovered and prepared well over the weekend, so we need to be sure that we are ready against a very strong Shelbourne team who are league leaders on merit."
McCLELLAND: "Our recent run has given us a lot of confidence, and we want to keep that momentum going."
Winger Jay McClelland has been looking forward to Monday's derby:
"The run in Europe has created the confidence within our squad that has helped us go on a run of great performances since the game in Instanbul.
We have brought our good performances into the league and gone on a great run with 4 straight wins and we are looking to keep our momentum going with the game on Monday in Tolka.
Games against Shelbourne are always tough games and we can expect another tough one come Monday night.
Matches in tolka have always been battles and very close, usually won or lost by small margins so we will need to be fully concentrated for the 90 mins.
Our fans have been brilliant so far this season travelling all over the country and abroad, and we will need them again come Monday behind the goal in the away end to help give us the extra boost."
TEAM NEWS
Romal Palmer (knee) & Alex Nolan (hip) remain out, while Cian Kavanagh (back) has returned to training but Monday night's match will come too quickly for him.
TICKETS / TV / UPDATES
Away tickets are sold out.
The game will be live on RTÉ 2, RTE Player (in Ireland )and LOITV (outside Ireland).
As always, updates can be found on the Official St Pat's FC App - available now on both the App Store and Play Store.
Updates will also be available across all the club's social media channels and WhatsApp channel.
