Much at stake in Cork

With the top-two spots already decided ahead of this evening's meeting between St Patrick's Athletic and Drogheda United at Richmond Park, Bohemians travel to Cork in the weekend's closest thing to a title decider as the two clubs battle for third place and the guarantee of European football.

The Dubliners have a string of injury problems with Neale Fenn, JP Kelly, Kevin Hunt, Darren Mansaram, Dean Richardson and Ryan McCann all likely to miss out but manager Sean Connor remains determined to be positive about his side's prospects of finishing the campaign on a high note and sending a signal out about the club's intentions for next year.

"I think it's important to be positive here," he says. "We've played 32 games and we're going into the 33rd with a lot to play for which is an achievement itself at this stage in the development of the team.

"The games between the two clubs so far this season have generally been good and even but the 2-0 win they had in the cup a few weeks ago at Dalymount was a real disappointment and, aside from everything else that's at stake here, the players have a chance now to show the supporters and everyone else that that was a one-off."

City, as a result of that win in Dublin, have a cup final and the possibility of Uefa Cup football next season to look forward to but they will also be aiming to avoid slipping from a second to a fourth-place finish two seasons after the club won the title and appeared to be in a position to build on the success.

Leon McSweeney is suspended while John O'Flynn, Brian O'Callaghan, Liam Kearney and Darragh Ryan are all out injured. The lack of experienced strikers means that Damien Richardson may hand Colm Carroll his first league start for the club.