Cork City vs Sligo Rovers
The Rebel Army continued to demolish opponents and is deservedly situated in the first place on goal difference even though they have one game less (canceled visit to Limerick on Monday). The latest victim was the greatest club in the country Shamrock whom were finally defeated after seven unsuccessful duels at their Turner's Cross. With bad weather and huge support from the stands, the Leesiders scored three goals (3:0) although were without the best three attackers (A. Elding, M. Rafter and D. Morrissey long-term injured). Also, their most experienced midfielder C. Healy is a highly doubtful for this game. Sligo Rovers are the biggest disappointment in the league and the only one without a scored goal away from home so far. One of the reasons for this are definitely the long term injuries of club legends, A. Peers and R. Cretaro. They lost the North-West derby in Derry on Friday and played only a draw against Drogs in the last home game, both games without their best striker D.North due to injury and so will be now. The Bit o' Red will continue a busy schedule with the Setanta Cup return match away to St Patrick's on Monday.
It is clear that Cork is more rested team, in a much better mood, with great support once again - but one shouldn't ignore the fact that they have not scored a goal in seven of the last nine games with Sligo. At first glance, I thought home odds are really high but I expect this to be a tricky game where guests have a chance cause will play without any pressure here and the wounded lion is a the most dangerous then. I leave (Cork DNB) what I had in mind...
UCD vs Dundalk
The Students have played 75 consecutive games that has had at least one goal in it, amazing series without a goalless game. They won a deserved point against Limerick (1:1), but were defeated by Shamrock later. There was 0:2, but could easily have at least another three or four goals in the net that their goalie wasn't really good. The most experienced centre back I. Ryan, right back M. Langtry and in-form left winger A. Ben Mohamed were injured, and will likely skip the game again. Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny had good record against UCD, 9-2-1 (32:13). The Lilywhites confirmed that they're the best physical and the fitness prepared team in the league since were beaten Pats 4:1 (altough were losing at ht) and Derry 3:0 (goalless at ht). It is obvious that a great playing in the second half is their most powerful weapon this season. The most experienced defender M. Rossiter missed both games, but he recovered as well as midfielders K. Ward and D. Meenan. Only J. Mountney from midfield looks set to miss out for the second time during the space of a week. Keep in mind that the team will play two times with Shamrock in the next seven days.
Two consecutive matches with less than three goals for the Students is surprising mini-series to everyone and now all expect a festival of goals. But many forget that there is a new coach Aaron Callaghan after four years and his philosophy doesn't have to coincide with the previous one, attractive and open. While their goalkeeper is in top form, and on the other side I don't think the Lilywhites will play at their full strength for following difficult games versus Shams. Odds are fair and I can't find attractive bet here.
Drogheda Utd vs Bray Wanderers
Home side won the last three mutual matches against Wanderers at Hunky Dorys Park, but more apparent is that there are a lot of goals in the meetings between these two (24 goals in the last six h2h games). The Boynesiders are fired up, actually the club legend D. O'Brien is on fire, scored all five the club's goals in the last three games and with a total of seven, he is the league top scorer at the moment. M. Schlingermann and P. Crowley are long-term injured and with respect to their small squad should be noted that only M. Daly and D. Doyle haven't played both games (where the team realized satisfying results) in the past seven days. A back up midfielder A. McCann will miss the remainder of the season with a broken leg, but there is no a new important absences. Just one point from two matches against teams from Dublin was overshadowed a Bray's bright beginning of the season. In fact, that one point against Bohemians (that played with a ten players for 70 minutes) is their only one in the last four games. The Seagulls were quite poor in home defeat against champions (1:3) without the help of regular keeper S. Redmond, defenders both of the O'Connor's, midfielders J. Kelly, A. Hanlon and E. McGill. All of them will be out once again and midfielder S. Byrne is the new one on the missing players list.
It is clear that Drogs are the favorite here, but bookies are really overestimating them, imo. Actually, I don't know how their key older players will react in the third game in seven days. On the other side, away coach Alan Matthews has a number of problems and I believe that will set up a very defensive tactics cause there are not many experienced players who know how to cope in these situations. Perhaps the tradition will continue and Drogheda may be victorious and there can be a lot of goals goals, but these odds are not appealing to me.
