Rovers and Pat’s go head to head

SHAMROCK Rovers next match in the league is the highly anticipated derby fixture with St Patrick’s Athletic in Inchicore on Friday at 7.45pm.

Both teams were in action on Monday, with Pat’s in particular needing a win.

The Inchicore side duly delivered with a three-nil home win against Sligo Rovers.

While Pat’s’ home form remains patchy, with their previous home game resulting in a 2-1 loss to Shelbourne which was preceded by a one nil win against Dundalk, they are beginning to show better consistency in the league.

Shamrock Rovers have been showing very good form of late with wins over Waterford United, Bohemians and Galway United and draws against Sligo Rovers and Derry City.

Their last result was a 2-1 win away against Waterford on Monday, with both goals scored in the second half.

Confidence in the Rovers set up has improved on the back of this recent good run of results, including after the win away to Waterford, with coach Stephen Bradley saying that the aim is to get three points against Pat’s in Friday’s fixture.

Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradly will be hoping for another league win against St Pat’s

Indeed Rovers match against Waterford showed the importance of having a good youth structure with Cian Dillon, who was in the academy at Rovers and has been with the club since he was 10 years of age, coming off the bench to make his league debut.

“The second half was about taking our opportunities when they came,” said Rovers’ Roberto Lopes, who scored a header from a cross from Conan Noonan.

“If I can just get across the front man I know the ball is going to be quality and thankfully I managed to get my head on it, … it was just brilliant,” Lopes said after the game.

Confidence is also high in the Pat’s camp with 16-year-old Mason Melia getting in on the scoring in the three-nil win over Sligo with a curling right foot shot into the right corner from outside the box.

Manager Jon Daly thought his team could even have added one or two more goals to their tally.

Daly thought that his team showed lots of energy and he paid tribute to players who came on, such as Alex Nolan, Conor Keeley, who was back in the team, and he also thought Aaron Bolger was excellent.

While acknowledging the positive turn of form in the team he cautioned that the team need to go and build on it now.

St Pat’s Joe Redmond from Kilnamanagh was similarly in bullish form after the win against Sligo.

“It’s about time we had a performance like that, it’s the result that we’ve deserved, we’ve been banging the door down to be the team like that… two clean sheets in a row is what we pride ourselves on,” he said on Monday, with the Pat’s faithful in the background jubilant with the win.

Only one place separates both teams in the league with Rovers in fourth on 12 points and St Pat’s in fifth on 10 points with a goal difference of just three also between the teams.

St Pat’s’ last beat Shamrock Rovers in March 2022, over two years ago, in a one-nil home win in the league.

Both teams have clashed over fifty times in their history with the Tallaght team having won 25 encounters to Pats’ 13.

There have also been 14 draws between both these Dublin teams.

According to St Pat’s X page, formerly Twitter, tickets were close to selling out as of Monday and with only 50 home tickets left, as of Tuesday afternoon.

With both teams on the crest of a wave of good form Friday’s match should be a cracker, especially with Pat’s being able to leapfrog Rovers into fourth if they win.