Preview: St Patrick's Athletic vs Sligo Rovers - prediction, team news, lineups

St Patrick's Athletic welcome Sligo Rovers to Richmond Park on Friday evening for their latest instalment of Irish Premier Division action.

The Saints claimed an important 2-0 victory against Drogheda in their previous fixture, while the Bit O' Red fell to a damaging 4-0 defeat at Waterford.

Match preview

After narrowly missing out on a top five finish and European qualification in last season’s league campaign, St Patrick's have bounced back in emphatic fashion.

Stephen Kenny’s side currently sit second in the Premier Division and are only five points away from top spot following Shamrock Rovers’ defeat to Shelbourne on Friday evening.

With the Saints playing three of the bottom four within the next month, there will undoubtedly be optimism that the gap can quickly diminish too, though they will have to shake their patchy form to do so.

Despite their position, the home side have won just two of their latest seven, ranking fifth in the division’s form table over that stretch and have not won consecutive matches since the end of April.

However, Kenny's men will certainly be confident of doing so against Sligo Rovers, having won six of the previous eight meetings between the sides.

Following a steady seventh place finish last campaign, Sligo Rovers will be disappointed at how this season is panning out so far.

John Russell’s men occupy ninth place in the table after 20 games, putting them at risk of relegation from the Premier Division.

After a poor start to the season, losing seven of their first nine, it looked as though the Bit O’ Red had swatted away their struggles, winning three of their next four, but that has failed to continue.

In the seven matches since claiming victory against Dundalk in April, no team in the division has picked up fewer than Rovers’ five points, with their only win over that period strangely coming away to league leaders Shamrock.

With St Patrick's up next, who they have lost their previous six matches against at Richmond Park, there are no signs of any sudden improvements either.

St Patrick's Athletic League of Ireland Premier form:

Sligo Rovers League of Ireland Premier form:

Team News

St Patrick's are certain to be without midfielder Simon Power for Friday's contest, owing to a knee injury that the 28-year-old sustained early in the season.

However, the Saints came away from their clash with Drogheda without any further problems, meaning they are likely to name the same starting 11 that featured last Friday.

On the other hand, Sligo Rovers have multiple absentees, most notably Welsh defender Ollie Denham, who was dismissed after picking up a second yellow card against Waterford, resulting in a suspension.

Seb Quirk and Conor Reynolds are both expected to miss out with muscle injuries, while Jad Hakiki is set to miss the remainder of the season after having surgery on a foot problem.

Having missed the previous handful of fixtures, it remains to be seen whether Archie Meekison or Ciaron Harkin return to the matchday squad on Friday.

St Patrick's Athletic possible starting lineup:

Rogers; Redmond, Hoare, Turner; Brown, Lennon, Palmer, Elbouzedi; Leavy, Edmondson, Keena

Sligo Rovers possible starting lineup:

Sargeant; Stewart, McElroy, Blaney; Esua, McHugh, McHale, Fitzgerald; Patton, Kavanagh, O'Kane

We say: St Patrick's Athletic 3-1 Sligo Rovers

While St Patrick's form has been far from spectacular, they will undoubtedly be enthused by their victory last weekend in comparison to the defeats sustained by those around them in the league table.

With both Sligo Rovers' recent run of results and record against the Saints looking bleak, we think the home side will post a convincing win at Richmond Park and close the gap to Shamrock atop the Premier Division.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.