Dundalk look for capital gain

DUNDALK WILL look to maintain their impressive run of form and end a miserable sequence of results against the Dublin clubs this season when they travel to Inchicore tomorrow evening.

Jeff Kenna’s St Patrick’s Athletic side must refocus on the league before heading for Russia on Tuesday morning while Dundalk are intent on securing a first win or draw in nine attempts this year against sides from the capital.

“They’ve done well in Europe and we should learn from their experience,” says Dundalk assistant manager Joe Miller, “and you never know what can happen. Declan O’Brien has gone there and helped them out, so we feel we’ve played a wee bit of a part in that! But in all seriousness, we want to do well in the St Pat’s game and get further up the table.”

The visitors are without Shaun Kelly and Michael Daly, both suspended, while there are minor injury problems to contend with.

Their opponents, meanwhile, have Darragh Ryan back from suspension while Gary Dempsey and Mark Leech continue to progress towards full fitness but O’Brien is excluded from taking part under the terms of his loan agreement.

Shamrock Rovers will look to maintain their challenge to Bohemians at the top of the table with a win over a Derry City side recently returned from Sofia. Ian Bermingham is set to miss out again while Ollie Cahill, Stephen Rice and Pádraig Amond all face late tests. Pat Sullivan comes into the reckoning having signed from Cork City while Karl Coleman and Seán Webb have left the club.

“It’s great to be involved in European football,” says Rovers boss Michael O’Neill, “but it brings its own difficulties, such as Derry City playing in Bulgaria on Thursday and then playing us three days later. But they’re a full-time outfit so they’re geared to deal with this situation. We’ll need to be on top of our game to get three points.”

City have a few players with knocks after Thursday night’s 1-0 defeat by CSKA. Stephen Kenny will have a better idea about how he is fixed today but Eddie McCallion and Peter Hutton are definitely out due to a one-match ban.