Having quipped that his team played like they’d just got out of bed in losing tamely 3-0 at Shamrock Rovers on Tuesday night, St Patrick’s Athletic manager Liam Buckley wants his players wide awake for the visit of champions Cork City to Richmond Park this evening.
“That’s probably as poorly as we played this season,” said Buckley after their Tallaght Stadium chasing.
“We’ve had a lot of games in the last few weeks. That said, I’m not going to use it as an excuse, we’ve got to get on with it.
“We need to make sure we regroup and get our energy levels back up and see can we turn over Cork,” added the manager whose side defend an eight-match unbeaten home run since losing to Cork on the opening night of the season.
Absent for personal reasons on Tuesday, Barry Murphy should return in goal for St Patrick’s who are again likely to be without Owen Garvan, Killian Brennan and Dean Clarke.
But Cork manager John Caulfield is wary of his hosts’ form in Inchicore.
“They’re very good at home . . . score lots of goals,” said Caulfield whose side has narrowly won the two games between the sides so far this season.
“They obviously play attacking football. Liam has brought in a lot of younger players and they play with a lot of energy.”
Defender Alan Bennett, along with midfielders Conor McCormack, Gearóid Morrissey and Steven Beattie all need to prove their fitness if they’re to feature for second-placed Cork.
Man-of-the-match in their dramatic 2-1 win over Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght last month, Bohemians’ midfielder Dylan Watts is relishing the prospect of the Gypsies making it a hat-trick of wins over their arch-rivals in the big derby at Dalymount Park.
“I thought as a team we really turned up that night and showed the country what we were about,” said Watts.
“I don’t know,” added the 21-year-old when asked whether Bohemians have Rovers’ number. “It’s going to be a tough game, but we’ll go into it full of confidence.”
Bohemians are boosted by the return of captain Derek Pender, though Colin McCabe, Karl Moore, Darragh Leahy, Cristian Magerusan and Ryan Swan remain out injured.
Midfielder Brandon Miele tweaked his hamstring against St Patrick’s so misses out for Rovers while goalkeeper Kevin Horgan and Sean Boyd are still sidelined.
