Preview: Sligo Rovers v St. Patrick's Athletic

Friday 12th October 2007, 1:13 am

Stephen Paisley, St. Patrick's Athletic.

Photo by Tom Carey.

12th October 2007

eircom League of Ireland Premier Division

Sligo Rovers
v
St. Patrick's Athletic

Venue : The Showgrounds

Referee : Declan Hanney

Kick-off : 8:00 PM

Sligo Rovers have slid down the League of Ireland Premier Division table in recent weeks and now occupy sixth place with European and Setanta qualification looking beyond them. They host Saint Patrick's Athletic at the Showgrounds on Friday night as they aim for a change in recent fortunes.

Sligo have now won just one of their last six league games and two consecutive defeats in their last two games have hurt. The nature of the defeats will have hurt Paul Cook's side even more. They were more than holding their own against Bohemians before a rash challenge sparked a red-card and a late Bohs rally saw the Gypsies win 3-0. The Bit O' Red looked set to draw with league leaders Drogheda last weekend until Jason Gavin snatched a winner deep in stoppage time.

The Saints continue to slide and a crucial home defeat to a less than full strength Bohemians last Friday exposed a whole host of problems within the club that led the league earlier in the year.

The Saints have won just one of their last ten away games in the league with six of those games ending in defeat. That one win came against Galway at Terryland Park a couple of weeks ago.

Pats beat Sligo 4-0 at the Showgrounds in April and 3-1 at Richmond Park in May.

Team news

Sligo Rovers

Seamus Coleman is on international duty with the Irish under-21s.

Adam Hughes is a major doubt having picked up a head injury an an accident at home.