Tonight sees the four sides competing in European competition clash in the SSE Airtricity Premier Division as games are brought forward to assist them in late summer.
It has become a tradition to move two matches into May in order to give the clubs a free weekend in around their first round qualifier.
The same teams will also meet on Monday 26 June, thus leaving them vacant on the weeks ending 16 July and 28 July. The latter coincides with the beginning of the second round.
Shamrock Rovers host St Patrick's Athletic tonight at Tallaght Stadium as the Hoops begin life at the top of the table once again.
The sides met at the venue on 14 April. Since that, Stephen Bradley’s side have won eight from nine in an unbeaten run which also includes seven clean sheets.
Pat’s have recorded back-to-back victories under interim boss Jon Daly. His chances of landing the permanent role are increasing all the time.
A positive result here could go a long way to securing it.
The Hoops made five changes for their win over UCD so they have the luxury of being able to freshen their team for a midweek game.
Bradley said: "We had a couple of knocks and obviously we’ve had players that needed games. Like we’ve always said, we trust everyone within the squad so it was important with the week that we’d had, and the week coming up that we changed it up. I thought some of the performances were very good.
"St Pat’s are slightly different in how they’re setting up and how they’re playing. There are different tactical tweaks to what they’re trying to do and I’m sure we’ll see that tonight.
"But one thing that hasn’t changed for Pat’s, no matter who their manager is, is that they have some very good individuals.
"Young Adam Murphy has been very good, and they have Chris Forrester and Jake Mulraney so they have real quality in the attacking part of the pitch. That hasn’t changed and we know that if we’re not at our very best, those individuals are good enough to cause any team problems. So we’ve got to make sure we’re ready."
Jack Byrne returns from a knock which kept him out of the Students game. Sean Kavanagh is back but Simon Power is still out. Trevor Clarke is suspended. Liam Burt played an academy game at the weekend so should be available later in the month.
Eoin Doyle returns from a ban for Pat's but Joe Redmond is out until later in the summer.
Tom Grivosti (hamstring) made his return on Friday.
Derry City have steadied the ship with some big wins recently. They’ll be cursing being back at home as Dundalk visit the Ryan McBride Brandywell.
City have just two wins from seven home games so far this year. Victory away to Bohemians last Friday continued their unbeaten stretch on the road with 20 points from a possible 24.
It demonstrates the difficulties they’ve had on the poor Brandywell surface.
Dundalk were heading for a very disappointing night against Cork City, only for the character which they demonstrated countless times over their glory years, to come to the fore.
Cork may have imploded but goals from Cameron Elliott and Patrick Hoban in added-time brought jubilant scenes in Oriel, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in some time.
HOBAN!! ABSOLUTE SCENES!#LOI | #DUNCOR pic.twitter.com/FgrZlAVLtD
— League of Ireland (@LeagueofIreland) May 12, 2023
It leads to a great game in store tonight with both sides bringing momentum in to the game.
Derry boss Higgins is taking confidence from their success on road, including a few days ago.
"We had control, we've come to Dalymount Park and won 1-0 - that's back-to-back 1-0 wins away from home - we'll take it.
"It’s a big game on Monday. Dundalk scored in the 94th and 97th minute in Oriel on Friday. They’ve done that a few times. We know we’re going to need to be right at it to win the game. Hopefully we can pick up a massive three points."
Cameron Dummigan made his Derry return in the final minutes in a major boost to City.
