Pat's look to revive title hopes

St Patrick's Athletic v Sligo Rovers

St Patrick's Athletic will look to keep their slim title chances alive when they take on Sligo Rovers at Richmond Park tonight, kick-off 7.30pm.

Saints would have to win all three remaining matches and hope for a range of unlikely results elsewhere. In reality, Pete Mahon’s side will be hoping for a strong finish to boost their chances of European qualification.

For St Pat’s, Sean O'Connor is out with a hamstring injury, while Shane McFaul is a doubt as he has a virus.

Stephen Bradley returns to the squad, although Dave Mulcahy and Danny North are nursing injuries and may not be available. Daryl Kavanagh is suffering from tendentious of the knee and is also a doubt.

Saints manager Mahon said: "We have a number of players who have picked up hamstring injuries and this is not surprising given the amount of games which we have played this year.

"Our league title ambitions are gone for another season, so there is no pressure on us. We will enter the game in a relaxed frame of mind, but we are still looking to win the match.

"Sligo are the in-form team at the moment. They'll smell blood and will go for the juggler, that's how they'll approach the game.

"They want to win the league and we want to qualify for Europe, there is a lot at stake.

"We are unbeaten at home since March so we want to preserve this decent run.”

Sligo have a fully fit squad for the tie.

Rovers welcomed Jason McGuinness and Eoin Doyle back from injury for the 5-0 win over Dundalk on Tuesday night.

McGuinness started the game while Doyle came on as a substitute and scored.

Sligo boss Paul Cook said: “The matches have flown by and it is amazing that there are only three games left.

“We are delighted to achieve a record points total and number of wins in the season. Our goal every season is to do better than the previous year and we have achieved that.

“It is a wonderful position to be in for the club and we’re going to do our best to try to get as many points on the board. Obviously it would be preferable to have it in our hands and the only way we can do that is focus on our own games.

“We will treat this one as any other. Richmond Park is one of the hardest places to go in the league. St Patrick’s Athletic make it very hard for teams and we know that from experience. Every game between the sides has been close this year and I don’t expect this one to be any different.

“There are more twists to come in the title race. I said a couple of weeks ago that teams will drop points and I expect it to continue from now until the end of the season. It could be any team out of the competing sides so we’ll just have to do our best to make sure it isn’t us.”