OWING TO U21 international commitments, a couple of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division fixtures scheduled for this evening have been postponed.
However, both of the sides involved in the title race are in action. Leaders Dundalk travel to play Finn Harps, with Shamrock Rovers playing host to Derry City. Tonight’s other game is the meeting of Sligo Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic at The Showgrounds.
Shamrock Rovers trail Dundalk by three points, but they do have a game in hand to spare over the champions. The Hoops will be aiming for a third consecutive victory (and clean sheet) when Derry visit Tallaght Stadium this evening.
Rovers were 2-0 winners in the corresponding fixture earlier in the campaign. Aaron Greene’s goal then separated the sides when they met at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium in April, so Stephen Bradley’s men will be aiming to make it three wins in a row against the Candystripes in 2019.
Sean Kavanagh is expected to return for Rovers, but injury will rule Aaron McEneff out of facing his former club. A decision on the involvement of Dylan Watts and Sam Bone will be made closer to kick-off.
“They’ve shown this year already that they’re more than a match for anybody in the league,” Rovers boss Bradley said of tonight’s opponents. “They’ll definitely come down to Tallaght and try to take three points. But we believe we’re ready. We’re focused to go and try and win the game.
“They’ll come with a game plan and we’ve got to respect what they’re good at, but we’ll focus on what we’re doing really well. We’ve got to make sure we drive that home and get more points on the board.”
Fourth-placed Derry City are four points behind Bohemians in third, but they too have played a game less than the team immediately above them. In their last Premier Division outing, Derry ended a five-game winless run with a 4-0 trouncing of neighbours Finn Harps.
“Rovers are a quality side and they’re a seriously tough nut to crack, especially at home, but these are the type of challenges we have to relish,” said Derry City manager Declan Devine, who’ll be without the services of injured duo Patrick McClean and Michael McCrudden, while Darren Cole is rated as doubtful.
Ballybofey is the venue for the clash of the division’s top and bottom sides. However, having been held to a draw away to Finn Harps earlier in the season, Dundalk are unlikely to be complacent when they return to Finn Park this evening.
“Going up to Finn Park is always very tricky and tough. Harps are always tough so we expect nothing less again this time,” said Dundalk striker Georgie Kelly.
“We were up there earlier in the season, conditions were tough and they ground out a result, so hopefully on Saturday we can dig deep and take the three points. That’s the main goal.
“The performance mightn’t be too pretty and it’s going to be a tough battle, but at the end of the day once we get the three points then we’ll be delighted.”
Dundalk take a 12-game unbeaten run into the fixture. Having moved off the bottom last month as they avoided defeat for four consecutive games, Harps are back at the foot of the table after losing their last three league matches.
“It would be great if we could repeat the draw that we got back in February,” said Finn Harps boss Ollie Horgan. “Dundalk weren’t at their best for a while back then but they have been in really great form recently so we know what is ahead of us.
“We have worked hard this week to be ready, so it’s a case now of delivering the best performance possible. At the same time, we’d hope that Dundalk are not at their best and a little bit of luck would be welcome as well.”
Elsewhere, sixth-placed Sligo Rovers will have to plan without Dante Leverock — who’s on Gold Cup duty with Bermuda — when they face a St Patrick’s Athletic side who have already beaten them twice this season.
Fifth-placed Pat’s, who are three points clear of Sligo, will be buoyed by Simon Madden’s last-gasp equaliser against Cork City last weekend. The Bit O’ Red, meanwhile, had their seven-match undefeated run ended by Dundalk, who were 4-0 winners at Oriel Park.
There’s also a full programme of First Division fixtures, the pick of which sees leaders Shelbourne make the short journey to the Carlisle Grounds to take on Bray Wanderers.
Today’s fixtures
Premier Division
Shamrock Rovers v Derry City (7.00pm)
Sligo Rovers v St Patrick’s Athletic (7.45pm)
Finn Harps v Dundalk (8.00pm)
First Division
Bray Wanderers v Shelbourne (3.00pm)
Drogheda United v Athlone Town (5.00pm)
Limerick v Galway United (6.30pm)
Cabinteely v Cobh Ramblers (7.00pm)
Longford Town v Wexford (7.30pm)
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Well i think most people can understand that, i would back mickey harte to the hilt in any argument against RTE. I heard the skit and was shocked at the time, the guy that did it is just not funny.
Rte are muppets.
I agree with the 2 previous comments. John Murray has a smugness about him that reminds me of his predecessor on Radio 1 who has since gone on to ‘bigger and better things’
Murray is a muppet. His attempts at humour are pathetic. I switch off in the morning as soon as the news is over. Sadly there is a dearth of talent at RTE. Perhaps lowering salaries to appropriate levels might remove the smugness?
John Murray (who makes nice bobs on the side when RTE buy shows; like the recent Charlie Bird excursion to the South Pole, which he was involved in producing), is woefully ill suited to what he is doing now. He’s as funny as a broken leg in a marathon. Like Mooney in the afternoon, his signature tune has me reaching for the next station within nanoseconds.
He is a current affairs man, and that’s it. Des Cahill is a colour reporter, not a snorting ill prepared sports correspondent with stilted delivery and a jarring manner. Pat Kenny is a well briefed incisive and thorough interviewer, who happens to be devoid of spontaneous persona, so they gave him a talk show for eleven years, at the bones of three quarters of a million for each of those years. Tubridy is a vacuous, bubble dwelling non entity, who only came to life in recent times when Fianna Fail were mentioned, and now he’s numero uno, and falling fast. Duffy was a vox pop guy, who was anointed by Gaybo, beyond his talents, and now makes the Lahvline his own personal soapbox, treating callers with sheer bad manners, abruptness, and sighing condescension.
The late Gerry Ryan, who drove me cracked with his on air consumption of any passing foodstuffs, his constant plugs for Harry Crosbie and his other buddies (in exchange for freebies of course), and his arrogance, had, despite all those failings, more charm, and more personality than the whole flippin’ lot put together.
He was probably one of the only on air personalities in that institution, (with the exception of a fair chunk of the news team, Morning Ireland et al.) who wasn’t promoted beyond their station, as it were.
RTE is a living breathing example of the Peter Principle, with a healthy dash of nepotism.
Rte should be shut down
What a choice of song…idiots. What planet are they on. John murrays show is scripted and produced, there’s more than him to blame. And who leaked the contents of the private and confidential letter received by Rte? The postman?! The cleaner?? Professor plum in the library with the candlestick??!
All GAA players should boycott RTE this weekend and send the smug fcukers a clear message.
Ryan, with respect Gerry Ryan most certainly was promoted outside of his own show…secrets, school around the corner, Ryan confidential, operation transformation and on and on. Rte seem to use the same handful of bores to do everything! But leaking a letter and handing a "satirical" script to John Murray of all people to read out??? What planet were they on. Did they think people would turn on the hugely respected Mickey Harte instead of them??? Eejits.
Oh, I quite agree, Jaynie. I wouldn’t be looking at him with rose tinted specs or anything :) I remember The School Around The Corner too!
But my point remains that his bread and butter, the morning slot on 2fm, despite the faults I bored ye all with, had far more individuality attached than John Murray’s efforts.
His producer would want to be…I won’t say what, but as you allude to, there is a large and bloated degree of support behind the guy or gal on the mic, especially and almost exclusively wrt RTE, and it’s ridiculous that none of them had the skill or the cop on to say, “Hang on a second!”
Very insensitive, I’m a Dublin gaa supporter and it’s true to say we are like one big family.its very upsetting what the Harte family and John went through.shame on ya RTE.if I wasn’t going to the game tomorrow I wouldn’t bother watching it on tv.
‘One big ‘family” – when the footballers play Croker is always full (or nearly so) , when the hurlers have a game never more than half full. Lots of ‘family’ members don’t do their duty when the caman is involved.
Mickey Harte has had a tragic year, and in the face of all that stress he still pushes forward his beloved Tyrone to greater heights. The sketch was insensitive for sure, and would understandably have annoyed Harte at this time. It isn’t fair, however, to paint all of RTÉ as ‘muppets’ – this is an organisation made up of many individuals – doing their best and, more often than not, doing a great job. The problem with comment sites like these, I find, is that the negative voice is quite often the only one that bothers with being heard. John Murray is a fine presenter, so is Mooney etc… Not perfect, but who is?
Totally agree with you there, wouldn’t exactly call him a natural! In such bad taste! Did not one person on the team say…hang on a minute…maybe not the best choice of song…oh and probably best not to skit about the private and confidential letter our boss leaked, sorry, I mean received