Pats to put Doolo in the Drog house

Cork City v Longford Town
Friday night's live game sees Alan Matthews goal-shy Longford outfit travel to take on a Cork side which put six goals past Bray last weekend. Matthews misfiring miscreants are further dulled by the absence of Davy Byrne and Danny O'Connor - both sent off last week in the 4-1 cup defeat to Pats.

Cork are without last weekend's hat-trick hero as Roy O'Donovan sits this one out having tallied too many bookings. It looks like Longford are just not capable of scoring enough goals to win this game. Cork's late surge for the title will require them to take maximum points here if it is to have even an outside chance of success. Home win.

4/11 Cork
3/1 Draw
13/2 Longford Town



Derry City v Bohemians
Stephen Kenny welcome's his former students to The Brandywell who are yet to find a new mentor. It's hard to see where Bohs are going to summon the motivation from to raise their game to a standard where they can compete with Derry. The home side should keep the momentum in their title challenge with a business-like win.


4/9 Derry
13/5 Draw
6/1 Bohemians



St Patricks Athletic v Drogheda United

This is an interesting tie. The enthusiasm at Richmond Park last week was palpable as Pats gave Longford a 4-1 drubbing. It was as if Pats had been saving up their goals to spend in one big splurge, and Johnny McDonnell's side played with an attacking verve which has been sorely absent over the last few months.

Drogheda are crucially missing Declan O'Brien tonight - their primary source of goals in what has been a very low scoring season for a team we all believed had real title hopes. The Drogs can be expected to struggle to score. This a game to side with the narrow outsider and back the Saints for a win.

13/8 St Pats
2/1 Draw
6/4 Drogheda



UCD v Bray Wanderers
The Students of UCD do draws - plenty of them; scoreless draws a speciality. But if ever the Belfield boys were going to score, it must be tonight against a Bray side that has conceeded a flood of goals throughout the season - 52 in 24 games to be precise.

It's a brave man who would back UCD to win at 4/6, you simply couldn't have enough confidence that they will score. Hmmmm, best watched.

4/6 UCD
12/5 Draw
7/2 Bray Wanderers



Waterford Utd v Shelbourne

Waterford's revival under Gareth Cronin was cruelly punctured by some odd officialdom at Dalymount recently. Unfortunately the Blues will continue to suffer the effects of that this evening as they miss Ger McCarthy and Alan Cawley both of whom were sent off against The Gypsies. Also absent is James Chambers - on loan from tonight's opposition.

Title hunting Shels are at full strentgh, and against a depleted Waterford side it's unlikely they'll return to Dublin without three points.

11/2 Waterford
12/5 Draw
1/2 Shelbourne