Cork City v St Patrick’s Athletic Match Preview
Friday night’s game at Turner’s Cross will see a face-off between two teams experiencing very contrasting fortunes as second from top St Pats take on second from bottom Cork City. Steven Kenny’s title-chasers travel to Leeside in decent form following four wins from their last six and a credible point last time out against champions Shelbourne. City, meanwhile, already depleted by injuries and winless in their last five, have been dealt a further blow ahead of Friday’s fixture with manager Tim Clancy confirming that star striker Ruairi Keating will miss the remainder of the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon sustained in the defeat to Derry last week.
This news, which throws the newly promoted club’s survival hopes in jeopardy, is compounded by an ongoing injury crisis that has kept key players like Sean Maguire, Greg Bolger, Malik Dijksteel and Cathal O’Sullivan out of action for much of the early parts of the season. A threadbare squad combined with a dejected mood after a 2-1 loss at the Brandywell in their previous game, having led at half time, ensures that City’s mental and physical state ahead of the arrival of one of the league’s strongest sides must be far from ideal.
To combat the absence of a recognised centre-forward, Clancy may opt to use Alex Nolan – traditionally a winger – up top against the club with whom he spent the past two seasons. Nolan, who showed his ability in front of goal with an excellent strike against Waterford on matchday four, is not the only man in the City camp to have made the move to the Rebel County from Inchicore, with the man he would be replacing, Keating, making 23 appearances for the Saints in 2024 before returning to Cork. Clancy too will be familiar with Friday’s opponents having taken charge of the Dublin club for over sixteen months between December 2021 and May 2023.
His opposite number, Stephen Kenny, will be making his first appearance at Turner’s Cross as Pats boss, although he too will be fully aware of what a Friday night on Leeside is about having gone toe-to-toe for league titles with Cork City for several years in his time at Dundalk. The ex-Ireland head coach and his team will make the journey south in a buoyant mood given their positive form (not to be said of their opponents), knowing that three points would send them top of the table should Drogheda fail to win away on Derry’s ever-troublesome plastic pitch in a game that kicks off simultaneously.
When the two sides met in Cork back in 2023, a late Pats winner saw them come away with a victory in a thrilling 3-2, a precedent they will hope to follow on Friday. The Rebel Army will have to contend with the Saints’ goal threat this time out too as striker Mason Melia – the League of Ireland’s first ever one-million-euro export – along with Zack Elbouzedi and Jake Mulraney on the wings, all pose a significant danger to opposition backlines. This is especially true in City’s case as they continue to search for their first clean sheet of the campaign, with a leaky rearguard a consistent headache for Tim Clancy, despite a collection of impressive individual performances from each of his defenders.
A sign of encouragement for the Corkmen ahead of a tough test might be the fact that they remain undefeated at home this season (one win, three draws), while Kenny’s men have lost two of their three away games to date. They were successful on their last trip outside of D8, however, when they travelled to face the division’s other Munster team, Waterford, at the RDC. A 90th minute Brandon Kavanagh winner completed a spectacular late turnaround and renewed faith in the Saints’ title aspirations ahead of back-to-back Dublin derbies at Richmond Park. The first of which, a 0-0 with Shelbourne, granted Pats their fourth clean sheet in eight matches ahead of Shamrock Rovers’ visit, as they make the short trip from Tallaght next week.
First though, it is a night under the lights at Turner’s Cross in store for the Dubliners to face a wounded animal in the form of Cork City. A home win may well prove to be one of the shocks of the League of Ireland season so far, but in a division which Damien Duff constantly refers to as “the greatest league in the world”, there are no surprises because “anybody can beat anybody.”
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