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Bray Wanderers v Cork City, Carlisle Grounds, 7.30pm
John Caulfield has called on his Cork City side to "keep the momentum going" as they look to maintain their title drive in Bray.
Cork have clocked up wins against Finn Harps, Shamrock Rovers and St Pat’s in their last three league outings to climb to second, four points off Dundalk.
Their hosts are tenth after a 2-0 defeat away to Shamrock Rovers last time out, but they did defeat St Pat’s in their last game at the Carlisle Grounds.
“We had a tremendous week last week and it is important to keep the momentum going, so we are looking forward to it,” said Caulfield.
“It’s a massive match for us. Obviously, we got nine points out of nine in our three games last week. Bray have changed managers and they beat Pat’s last week.
"They have a lot of experienced players and, as we know from going to Bray over the years, games there are really tight; you could see that from the cup semi-final last year and our league game which we drew up there towards the end of the season.”
Kenny Browne will miss out through suspension, while Eoghan O’Connell is still ruled out through injury as is John Kavanagh.
Karl Sheppard, Gearóid Morrissey, Mark O’Sullivan and Michael McSweeney have all struggled with knocks, but Caulfield will be hopeful that they will be available.
Longford Town v Shamrock Rovers, City Calling Stadium, 7.30pm
Pat Fenlon's Shamrock Rovers head for the City Calling Stadium fresh from a morale-boosting win, as they edged Shelbourne 3-2 on penalties on Monday night in the EA Sports Cup quarter-finals.
They sit in fifth and Fenlon will be confident of slaying a struggling Longford side.
They came from two down to snatch a 2-2 draw with Galway last week, so Tony Cousins' men will have their tails up despite their lowly position.
Saturday’s fixture comes in the middle of a busy schedule for the Hoops as they host Sligo Rovers on Tuesday after this assignment.
Rovers are without Luke Byrne, who’s been ruled out for the rest of the season. Defender David O’Connor is also injured while centre-back Max Blanchard is doubtful.
Sligo Rovers v Wexford Youths, The Showgrounds, 7.45pm
Dave Robertson has urged his side to build on last week's 2-0 win at Derry City and prove they have turned the corner.
The Bit O'Red boss was thoroughly satisfied with the result and performance against the high-flying Candystripes that saw them climb to eighth, and challenged his men to keep going in the right direction.
“It was a very mature performance from the whole squad in Derry," he told the club's website. "We can’t forget that Derry are a very good team who had won all four games before that. It was a fantastic performance from us and an equally good result.
“But now we need to focus on the present. For Wexford we need to make sure that we go into it with the same approach. They are a high energy and hard-working team, quite similar to Derry so it will be a tough game.
“We have to make sure that we maintain our performance levels and our quality and make sure we put in a good performance.”
Gavin Peers is available after overcoming a thigh injury which has kept him out of the team since the defeat to Bray Wanderers at the start of April.
Tim Clancy [groin] may not make it but should definitely be back for Tuesday night's trip to Shamrock Rovers.
Wexford Youths manager Shane Keegan is hopeful his charges have stopped the rot ahead of the trip north west.
Their draw against Finn Harps last Friday halted a run of three straight defeats in all competitions and Keegan saw enough in that display to give him optimism.
"I think the second-half performance last week was a big turning point," he said. "We haven't played as well in recent weeks as we were earlier in the season but we had a real look at ourselves at half time against Harps and I got a great response from them.
"We got ourselves back on the front foot and got back into a positive mindset and that attitude has continued during the week in our training.
"Sligo have been in great form lately so it's going to be a really tough test but we're determined to hit the ground running from the first minute this week and if we do that we're more than capable of coming away with points."
Youths are still without long-term injury casualties Aidan Keenan, Lee Grace and Peter Higgins but Shane Dunne made his first appearance of the season against Finn Harps and could start. Danny Furlong is back from suspension.
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