SOCCER AIRTRICITY LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION:HAVING RE-ESTABLISHED the fact they can defend with an impressively solid performance in Belfast during the week, league champions Bohemians head for Oriel Park this evening with the aim of reasserting themselves over one of the Premier Division's early season upstarts.
Dundalk did well to bounce back from the defeat at Sporting Fingal by beating Galway away this week and while they haven’t scored a victory over tonight’s opponents since the cup final of 2002, there appears to be no great shortage of confidence within Ian Foster’s camp as the Dubliners roll into town.
“It seems like everyone feels we’re punching above our weight,” says Dundalk midfielder Tom Miller, who has been one of the stars of the show for his side so far this season. “But I feel we’ve got a good enough squad to be where we are. It’s anybody’s league.
“If Galway can beat Bohs then you know it’s anybody’s league, it’s whoever performs better on the night. I definitely feel we can challenge, as long as we don’t pick up too many injuries and suspensions – that’s the only thing that might hold us back.
“If that did happen it would obviously make it a bit more challenging for us but I think we’ve got a good enough squad to push Bohs all the way, although we know it’s going to be a tough game on Friday.”
Miller, as it happens, is really only guessing about the “tough” bit because, as the teenager readily admits, he has never actually seen the champions play. Still, he says: “I’ve heard good things about them.”
Pat Fenlon is bound to be rather more familiar with the challenge his side faces this evening but he will be hampered in his efforts to overcome it by the absence of Ken Oman and Rafaelle Cretaro, both of whom were sent off in the defeat by Galway last week.
Owen Heary is back, however, having been given some time in the wake of a family bereavement while Mark Rossiter and Jason McGuinness should be fit after coming through the game at Windsor Park without any apparent problems.
Elsewhere, St Patrick’s Athletic will look to build on the two recent cup wins over Sligo when they face Paul Cook’s side at Richmond Park again this evening. Pete Mahon rested Ryan Guy, Stuart Byrne and Damien Lynch for the 4-0 win at the Carlisle Grounds in midweek and all three are expected to return for this game.
Joseph Ndo’s long wait for clearance to play for the visitors is finally over but with the former Cameroon international having been out of action for so long at this stage, it seems unlikely that he will do more than get a run out at some stage late on. Cook, though, has everyone else available to him.
Shamrock Rovers, get to take on a Bray side whose problems have been compounded since Tuesday by injuries to three of their players: Colm Tresson, Richie Baker and Stephen Brennan, all of whom are likely to miss out with hamstring problems.
The host are still without the likes of Craig Sives, Dessie Baker and Pat Sullivan but, as Michael O’Neill observes, his side’s confidence is certainly back. “I thought we showed a lot of belief and resolution that hadn’t been there earlier in the season,” he says of last weekend’s win in Drogheda. “The back four and goalkeeper were excellent.”
Drogheda will give late fitness tests to a string of players including Robbie Martin, Paul Crowley and Jamie Harris ahead of the trip to Galway, while Seán Connor has Stephen O’Donnell back from suspension as well as Derek O’Brien and Jason Molloy fit again for the game at Terryland Park. Gary Curran and Thomas Heary, however, will both be sidelined again by knee injuries.
In the First Division, the big game of the night is at the Brandywell where second-placed Derry take on third-placed Shelbourne.
Leaders Waterford United, meanwhile, have a virtually full squad with just Kevin Waters (calf) out ahead of their home game with Finn Harps.
