St Patrick's Athletic can move to within a point of league leaders Shamrock Rovers when they travel to face Sligo Rovers in The Showgrounds tonight, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
With Shamrock Rovers not in action until Sunday’s deferred game with Cork City, the Saints have the opportunity to boost their title hopes against a side they have struggled against this season.
Sligo, now without leading goalscorer Max Mata following his departure to Shrewsbury yesterday, inflicted 2-1 and 1-0 defeats on Pat’s during the Tim Clancy era.
The latter, in Inchicore in 1 May, marked the end of Clancy’s time as manager. It was also the last time the Bit O’ Red won away from home in what has been a season of few bright sparks.
Pat’s have been recovering from their European exit, seeing off a determined Longford Town side in the Cup and having plenty of time to regroup for the remaining 11 games of the season having not played in the Premier Division since 7 July.
Eoin Doyle announced his retirement and former Liverpool trainee Ryan McLaughlin was added to their ranks.
Jon Daly has led Pat’s to eight wins from 10 matches since taking over after that May encounter and will hope to end their poor form against Sligo this year.
"Sligo Rovers are always a difficult team to play against, they have some very good players and they've beaten us in both matches so far this season so hopefully we can reverse that trend.
"From our end, the players have trained very well over the last couple of weeks and we had a good workout in a friendly game against Cliftonville last week, where we were able to get minutes into most of the players, we have good completion for places, so it's all systems go for tomorrow.
"It should be a good game, we know we'll have another big travelling away support to cheer on the lads which is much appreciated, Sligo I'm sure will have a big support too, hopefully our performance leads to a positive result."
Joe Redmond, Tom Grivosti, Axel Sjoberg and Kian Leavy remain out injured.
With Mata gone, Portuguese striker Pedro Martelo is likely to make his first start and two substitute appearance since joining the club.
Fabrice Hartmann bagged the winner in the last game with Pat’s in The Showgrounds and he could also feature having re-joined the club for a second loan spell from RB Leipzig.
Karl O’ Sullivan is back in the squad after his ankle injury and James Finnerty and Garry Buckley have shown no ill effects after their return in the last couple of weeks and are fit to play.
John Mahon is a doubt with illness but, it is hoped he will recover in time for the game.
Richard Brush and Danny Lafferty, with the defender seeing his six-game ban reduced to four this week.
Will Fitzgerald is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a groin injury along with Garry Boylan and Mark Byrne remain out.
Sligo boss John Russell said: "Our previous games against them have been tight encounters so we’re expecting another difficult game.
'’It’s important we build on our last two home performances where we took maximum points. We are eager to try and build some momentum and with players starting to return to full fitness this will only enhance our chances."
Coverage on RTE2 and RTÉ Player begins at 7.35pm
Bohemians v Drogheda United, Dalymount Park, 7.45pm
Bohemians and Drogheda United have made good progress in their respective targets for the season as they meet in north Dublin tonight.
The Gypsies have found some form, particularly at home, to move into fourth spot ahead of Dundalk as the final quarter of the season to come.
With a last-16 FAI Cup tie with Rockmount to come this month, and Jonathan Afolabi on a hot streak in front of goal, there is reason for optimism for Declan Devine.
Devine said: "We want to make sure that every time we play at Dalymount Park, that we are out of the traps fast, irrelevant of who we are playing.
"We are finishing games magnificently well – scoring a lot of late goals, using our bench – but we need to be more ruthless in the opening periods of games.
"We have been very good at Dalymount in recent weeks. We've played some really good stuff and scored good goals. Long may that continue, because we are hitting a really important part of the season.
United were far from their best in a 2-2 draw against Sligo last week. In truth they looked to be set for defeat after being off the pace for the first 70 minutes.
However a defensive lapse allowed them a goal back and they showed their hunger, desire and quality to force a point.
It was one more point on the gap to Cork City in the play-off, and further good news came when the manager turn down their relegation rival for their managerial hot-seat.
The interest was testament to the job Doherty has done at Weaver's Park, working on a limited budget, and in a strong position to avoid the drop.
Dean Williams (ankle) is Bohs' only absentee. Luke Dennison (hand) is available once more.
Bohs boss Devine has pointed to the outstanding results Drogheda have had on the road as a warning sign to his team.
Devine said: "There is no underestimating Drogheda United. Kevin is a fantastic manager and he has some fantastic players. He has a lot of experience in his squad and a lot of players who can cause you problems.
"We also know that in the two games we have played against Drogheda this season that there has been very little between the sides.
"We had to dig in really, really hard up in Drogheda, and we showed good resilience when we played them in Dalymount too.
"Drogheda's away form shows that they are not afraid of going to big venues and performing – they have won in the Brandywell and they have won in Tallaght.
"We have to control what we can control and that’s our levels of intensity. We know we could have started at a higher level of intensity against UCD, so that is something that we want to make sure we bring to the table this week."
