PREVIEW AND INFO: PAT’S AWAY

Stephen Kenny and Jon Daly will do battle against their old clubs when St Patrick’s Athletic and Dundalk face-off in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division at Richmond Park on Bank Holiday Monday (kick-off 5.15pm, live on Virgin Media Two). Dundalk set a new club record for consecutive home clean-sheets with a seventh straight shutout [...]

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Stephen Kenny and Jon Daly will do battle against their old clubs when St Patrick’s Athletic and Dundalk face-off in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division at Richmond Park on Bank Holiday Monday (kick-off 5.15pm, live on Virgin Media Two).

Dundalk set a new club record for consecutive home clean-sheets with a seventh straight shutout against second-placed Derry City at Oriel Park on Friday night, a stalemate which moved them to within two points of neighbours Drogheda United at the bottom of the table.

It was the fifth scoreless draw in that sequence, which dates back to March 4th, but their performance in Daly’s first home match in charge deserved a win, which they were only denied by Brian Maher’s heroics as he somehow saved Jamie Gullan’s powerful 75th-minute strike.

Daly only left St Pat’s after their May Bank Holiday defeat in Sligo, and he returns there now four weeks later trying to guide Dundalk off the foot of the standings for the first time in three months, with Drogheda going into the West to face the eighth-placed Bit O’Red.

To do that, though, Dundalk will have to turn their away form around having only taken two points from a possible 27 on the road so far this year. Their last victory outside of Oriel Park in the league was on the final day of last season when they won 5-1 at already-relegated UCD.

Their last trip, Daly’s first game in the dugout, saw them start both halves well in Galway but they were undone by two set-piece goals. While they have been defensively strong at home, they have kept just one-clean sheet away in the past 13 months.

St Pat’s, meanwhile, will come into the game with confidence having recorded their first league win under Kenny at the fourth attempt, as they ended Galway’s nine-match unbeaten run thanks to Alex Nolan’s 88th-minute goal at Richmond Park on Friday.

That was a welcome turn for the Saints and Kenny who had only been denied all three points by Danny Grant’s injury-time leveller for Bohemians at Dalymount Park seven days earlier, having only conceded very late in a loss to league leaders Shelbourne earlier that week.

Their home form so far this campaign has been mixed, with five wins, a single draw and four defeats, but Kenny – who won four league titles between 2014 and 2018 while manager of Dundalk – will lift his new side into sixth if they make it back-to-back successes in Inchicore for the first time since early April.

St Pat’s have taken four points from their two meetings with Dundalk this season, Ruairí Keating’s strike on the half-hour doing the damage in Dublin on March 8th, before the sides took a point apiece from a 0-0 draw at Oriel Park in mid-April.

Dundalk are searching for a first win at Richmond Park since May 2021 when a Sam Bone own-goal and David McMillan effort saw them over the line 2-0, with their seven subsequent visits in all competitions ending in two draws and five defeats, including losing the last three.

This is the first of two trips to the capital for Daly’s men in the coming week, with table toppers Shels – who have no game on the Bank Holiday – waiting on Friday.

Quotes – Jon Daly
“We did a lot of work on tactics and a game-plan throughout the week going into the Derry game and I thought the boys implemented it really, really well. I thought we had the better chances throughout the 90 minutes.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t take one, whether that was lack of concentration on the last action or a fantastic save from Brian Maher. But I was really pleased coming out of it. I think the group have to take a lot of credit, a club record, seven clean-sheets in a row is no mean feat, especially in the situation they’re in.

“It’s now about trying to turn that last little bit of quality. I thought some of the attacking play and combination play was really good. That was probably Derry at their strongest, they’ve got most of their players available, you saw that with the quadruple change they made in the second half.

“It was one point gained. We’re one point closer to Drogheda. The first task for me and the group is to get above them. We’ve closed that gap. That was my first target for the players – can we get off the bottom of the league, and can we then focus on the teams above us after that and try to close the gap on everyone else.

“Once we get ourselves off the bottom of the league, I think there’ll be teams above us then that will start to be concerned about who’s coming after them.

“It was a good win for St Pat’s on Friday, a late winner from Alex Nolan, so they’ll be going into Monday night full of confidence now. I think we have to take heart and confidence from our performance against Derry as well.

“We’ll be going into it with a bit of confidence also and looking forward to the game. We’ve recovered over the weekend and we’ll go into this one fully focussed on trying to get three points.

“I had a great time at St Pat’s, I loved it there, and the fans were very, very good with me. I had success. I’m sure there’ll be a bit of banter. There’ll probably be one or two giving me a bit of stick, but that’s part and parcel of it. I have the utmost respect for the fans there.

“I enjoyed my time there but I’m obviously going there now to try to beat them, and make sure I get three points for my new club.”

Match Officials
Referee: Rob Hennessy
Assistants: Wayne McDonnell and Trevor Cotter
Fourth Official: Alan Patchell

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