O’Grady misses last two City games

CORK CITY will have to plan without midfielder Conor O’Grady for their remaining two matches in the Eircom league premier division, tonight’s tie against St Patrick’s Athletic and next week’s contest with UCD.

O'Grady suffered a calf-muscle injury, while Cork suffered defeat to Longford Town at Flancare Park on Monday and manager Liam Murphy has ruled him out of contention.

Cork's defeat by Longford Town put their qualification for Inter-Toto Cup action very much in doubt. They will have to win both remaining matches if they are to hold off the challenge of Shamrock Rovers to finish behind champions Bohemians and runners-up Shelbourne in third place. The danger for Cork in tonight's match at Richmond Park comes from the fact that St Pats are in need of the points to ensure that they are not sucked into the relegation battle over the last weekend. And both teams will be conscious of Cork's inability to produce their form away from home this season.

The match in Longford was just another illustration of Cork's problems on the road, for they made a very poor effort at taking anything from Flancare Park. Their highly-rated strike force were completely shut out by Longford's tough defence. Yet St Pats will approach the tie with caution "Cork are always tough, home or away," said manager Pat Dolan.

Pats will be further encouraged by their achievement in crushing Cork here early in the season. And one win from 12 League matches on the road suggests they are favourites to succeed again. Pats will have former Swansea City player, Ryan Casey, in their squad and Daragh Maguire is also fit and available after missing most of the season because of injury. St Pats have lost four of their last seven league matches and Cork's Liam Murphy will lay stress on this in his pre-match talk.

He will, most likely, counter the absence of O'Grady by switching Greg O'Halloran to the central midfield position to which he is best suited and bring Alan Carey back into the side at right-back. Drogheda United and UCD are two others who are, like St Pats, in need of points if they are to escape the relegation dog-fight. Drogheda look to be doomed but they will hold out hope until it is a mathematical certainty that they must play-off. Drogheda, three points adrift of St Pat's and UCD, will have Mark Dempsey back in action after recovering from a groin injury while goalkeeper Gary Rogers is again ruled out by a knuckle injury. Neil Bennett keeps his place in the visitor's goal against a Shelbourne side who have already qualified for next season's UEFA Cup by finishing runners-up to champions Bohemians in the Premier Division. Even though they have effectively nothing to play for against Drogheda, Shels boss Pat Fenlon insists his team will be going all-out for the three points. "Every result counts for Shelbourne and we will be looking for wins in our last two games. Stuart Byrne again misses out with a knee injury that ruled him out of last Sunday's 1-0 defeat by Bohemians at Tolka."

UCD will be without suspended midfielder Alan McNally, sent off in the 1-0 victory over Drogheda when they face already relegated Bray Wanderers at Belfield Park (kick-off 7.45pm). But former Sheffield Wednesday man Alan Cawley returns after a one-match ban. Mick O'Donnell, scorer of the dramatic late winner against Drogheda, takes over from McNally to partner Tony McDonnell in midfield.