Ronan O’Flaherty The Dugout

A very good afternoon to everyone and a very warm welcome to the management, players, officials and fans of today’s opponents Sligo Rovers.

We were here last Friday week against Shamrock Rovers and came up short in a two nil loss. Despite working hard form start to finish we got nothing from the game and had that little bit of luck gone our way we may well have scored the first goal or equalised. The game can change on very small margins however on reflection we have to say that Rovers deserved the three points and were worthy winners in the end.

These notes are penned prior to our game away to Derry and as such we don’t know the result. Despite being one of the most difficult places to go to we will have gone up to Derry with a very positive attitude as we have seen they have dropped points at home recently and really feel we can get a positive result up there, hopefully this proves to be the case.

To play Rovers last week in front of an another full house was absolutely fantastic, and it certainly shows that the game in this country is on the up with more people coming to games week after week. Once again I will say all clubs deserve great credit for showing the initiative and willingness to market the League of Ireland in a positive manner, hopefully we will continue to see a new generation of supporters coming out to support our League.

We will have had a really tough assignment last Friday and will have come back down the road knowing we will need to immediately focus on Sligo Rovers. Regardless of the result in Derry we have no time to dwell on the result and need to be ready immediately for today’s game.

We will need to improve on our last home performance today against a side that has already beaten us and look to be in a strong position to mount a challenge for all honours this season.

Our opponents today have had a squad full of really good players and have been very consistent since John Russell has been in charge they have a squad full of quality and experience.

We go into tonight’s game without the services of Joe Redmond, Tom Grivosti, Harry Brockbank and Danny Rogers who thankfully has returned to light training and gym work.

We have prepared for today’s game with a real focus knowing that we will have to be on our game from the off and will need to produce a hardworking performance that will give us the platform to get a positive result.

We know we will have terrific home support behind us and from the start we will need to be professional and fully

Friday nights at Inchicore to date have been sell out’s and it has been a real lift to play in such a wonderful atmosphere… let’s make a bank Holiday Monday the very same !

We really want to deliver the right results for all our fans every week, home and away, and with your help and support here tonight we will do everything we can to get the desired result tonight.

Thanks for getting behind the team and I hope you enjoy the game.

Thanks, Alan Mathews, Technical Director, St Patrick's Athletic FC.