Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne top the billing Friday night

LOI PREVIEW: A third meeting of the season between Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne – but the first at Tallaght – earns top billing in Friday’s League of Ireland schedule. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

A third meeting of the season between Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne – but the first at Tallaght – earns top billing in Friday’s League of Ireland schedule.

The four points Damien Duff’s side claimed from the champions in those two Tolka Park meetings account for their buffer over Derry City at the summit.

Third-placed Rovers are a further two points adrift, amplifying the importance of victory tonight in the first game of the second half of the campaign.

“There wasn’t much in the two away games,” Stephen Bradley said of the duels, a 3-2 Shels win and scoreless draw. “The pitch effectively killed the last game as a spectacle - there was no quality and nothing either team could do anything about it.

“In the first match, we didn’t start for the first 20 minutes and they punished us. Shels are top of the league on merit and there for a reason.” 

Should the Tallaght tussle end in another deadlock, Derry City can profit.

They host Sligo Rovers in a north-west derby, with visiting boss John Russell railing against “disrespect” in the run-up. That jibe wasn’t even fired by opponents but by one of their own, striker Johnny Kenny who is on loan at Shamrock Rovers from Celtic.

Russell was unimpressed by Kenny this week distinguishing expectations between his two domestic clubs, insisting the pressure to win every game is part of the Hoops culture.

“It’s probably a bit disrespectful for him to be making comments like that, considering he was given his chance at the club,” said Russell about the local player they sold to Celtic in early 2020 for an initial €150,000 fee.

“Sligo is a fan-owned community club, who developed young players and have sold players like Johnny.

“Players play at different levels, at different clubs at different times in their career. They should appreciate what they have and what they are given at different points.” 

Dundalk, on the back of shocking Shamrock Rovers last Friday, travel to Galway United with new boss Jon Daly sitting in the Eamonn Deacy Park stand.

Only 16 days ago, the 41-year-old Dubliner was sacked by St Patrick’s Athletic Garrett Kelleher, whose pursuit of Stephen reached agreement a week ago.

Daly takes over from Noel King, whose stint in succession to the sacked Stephen O’Donnell was curtailed after four games on medical advice. Ian Baraclough was Dundalk’s No 1 target for the former Northern Ireland and Sligo Rovers boss is staying in the UK for now to assess his options. He was most recently the assistant boss at Cheltenham Town, whose manager Darrell Clarke is poised to move to Barnsley.

“We’re in a relegation dogfight,” admitted Daryl Horgan about the basement Lilywhites, who travel to his home town in the west. “We need to play like we did against Shamrock Rovers last Friday to get out of it.  

“Galway are flying after beating Drogheda last week and it’ll be a tough game. They’ve been really good, so we will have to bring the same intensity, same levels of quality, same hunger - same as everything we did against Rovers."

Kenny heads back to Dalymount Park seeking the first win of his St Pat’s reign. Derry City and Shels inflicted home defeats on the Saints. “Stephen is barely there a week, and wouldn’t have had a lot of time to work with the team until this week but he will have learnt a lot from his team over their past two games,” observed Bohemians manager Alan Reynolds, who worked under Kenny previously. Bohs will be without injured crew of Jordan Flores, Dayle Rooney, Luke Matheson, Brian McManus, Rob Cornwall and Keith Buckley along with the suspended James Clarke.