Saints look to continue their Easter rise as Kenny faces off with Kilduff

A full round of Bank Holiday action kicks off the second series of fixtures in the Premier Division and the leaders are intent on staying top

Mon, 06 Apr, 2026 - 00:05

John Fallon

It was a very Good Friday indeed for new league leaders St Patrick’s Athletic and they head to Dundalk on Monday seeking a continuation of their Easter resurrection.

The Saints are 13 years without the title and they drifted further from the reckoning by finishing fifth last season. They have, however, completed the first round of fixtures and find themselves top of the pile.

They’ve beaten newly promoted Dundalk along their way to the summit and visiting manager Stephen Kenny will be up against his former player Ciarán Kilduff.

“St Pat’s the only team to have beaten us in the first round of games and we felt we didn’t give as good an account of ourselves that night as we wanted,” said Kilduff, whose team have won three and drawn their five games since.

“Hopefully we can put that right on Monday. We’ll have Aodh Dervin back from suspension but one or two of the lads have picked up knocks in the win over Shelbourne on Friday, so we might be a little bit light ourselves. It will be a really tough game for the group but we’ve every right to be full of confidence.

“Hopefully the crowd can get behind us and make it a big evening for everyone. Easter Monday games are always big fixtures in the diary and this is no different.”

Bohemians and Waterford began Friday’s fixtures at opposite ends of the table but there were contrasting fortunes.

Drogheda holding Bohs scoreless cost the visitors top spot but the Blues snapped a five-match losing streak by playing out a stalemate against champions Shamrock Rovers at the RSC.

“We go in four blocks of nine games each,” explained Bohs defender Jordan Flores. “The first one is done and we haven’t lost a game. Hopefully we’ll win a few more instead of drawing as many as we have done.

“We’ve put ourselves in a good position with a brilliant achievement of being unbeaten. But we play each other four times and know Waterford on Monday will be tough.”

Former Manchester City trainee Flores has been influential in their early surge, relieved to be back in his favoured midfield berth having spent most of last season at left-back.

“We’ve got in a good couple of left-backs in Senan Mullen and Ryan Burke,” the Englishman said of squad strengthening by Alan Reynolds.

“I had to slot in there on Friday night when Senan went off injured, which I don’t mind doing at all. The manager addressed where we were kind of weak last season. The two centre-backs who've come are absolutely brilliant. Both Sam Todd and Patrick Hickey are man-mountains.

“And then Senan and Darragh Power on the side of them - really good players. It’s been massive for us that we’ve been keeping those clean sheets and hopefully it continues.”

Tallaght hosts the meeting of the 2024 and 2025 champions, neither of whom have begun the season at full throttle. Joey O’Brien derided Friday’s loss at home to Dundalk as Shels' worst performance of the season, while Shamrock Rovers chief Stephen Bradley wants a sharper edge from his troops.

“There’s not much more from the players we can ask for, other than the end product,” he said. “We were excellent in every aspect against Waterford. Nine times out of 10 that you play that game, we win it.”

In the First Division, the first Cork City versus Kerry derby of the season takes centre-stage at Turner’s Cross.

“It’s going to be a tough game regardless of Cork’s draw at Finn Harps on Friday,” said Chris Collopy, assistant boss to Colin Healy at Kerry, about hosting the leaders.

“They had a long journey home from Donegal but, most importantly, we need to get ourselves right.

“We’ve reflected on Friday’s defeat against Cobh Ramblers, quickly putting it to bed because we must be fresh for Cork.”