Athlone Town welcome Finn Harps to the Athlone Town stadium tonight as they look to build on last week's 2-0 away win at Monaghan United (KO 7.00pm ).
Michael O'Connor's team will certainly be buoyed by that win, their first on the road this season and they will be looking to capitalise on their solid home form to overcome a struggling Finn Harps side.
But O'Connor almost has a full strength squad to choose tonight with Dave O'Dowd back in training following injury but long-term absentee Istvan Lakatos is some weeks away from fitness and is not being considered for selection tonight.
Michael O'Connor said: 'Finn Harps is going to a tough game, but every game is going to be tough. This League won't settle until about 14 or 15 games are gone. Every game you take on its own merits. We have a tough game on Saturday, but so have Finn Harps.'
But Harps have been struggling even though they have plenty of quality in their side, such as Conor Gethins who is always a threat in attack. But they have not built on their early season victory over Shelbourne and now Paul Hegarty's side is desperate to start putting some points on the board starting tonight
Harps go into this game with a doubt over Jonathon Minnock who is struggling for fitness after overcoming an Achilles problem and will not feature. Michael Funston is close to a return but tonight's fixture may be a week to early and he may not feature either. And 'keeper James Gallagher may pay the price for his costly mistake in the 1-0 defeat to Kildare County last weekend and boss Hegarty looks for some stability at the back.
And Hegarty knows his team's position in the table must improve and he will be looking for a big performance form his players tonight. 'I know where we are in the table and it's not good enough,' said Hegarty.
'The players know that it has been a terrible start and we have to get out of this. Maybe we need a bit of confidence and need one to go in off somebody's backside to give ourselves a wee boost. It's up to us to work that little bit harder and try and turn it around.'
