UCD travel to Dundalk in a crucial game this Friday night
UCD AFC travel to Dundalk in the Airtricity League Premier Division on Friday (Sep 7th)
The game has a 7.45pm kick off in Oriel Park.
This game sees the league’s bottom two sides go head to head but UCD’s 3-1 win over Bray Wanderers at the UCD Bowl last Friday night and Dundalk’s last minute loss to Drogheda means UCD are four points ahead of Dundalk in the table.
UCD AFC are in a good run of form, with three league wins from their last four games and a win at Dundalk would put them seven points ahead of Darius Kierans side although the Lilywhites would have a game in hand.
The teams have met twice in the league already this season, Dundalk won 2-1 in Oriel back in Feb and the game at The UCD Bowl in June finished 1-1.
Last 5 results:
Aug 10th Shelbourne 1 – 2 UCD (McMillan, Corry)
Aug 17th UCD 3-1 Cork City (Leahy, OG, Benson)
Aug 20th Sligo Rovers 3-0 UCD
Aug 24th UCD 0-1 Derry City (FAI Ford Cup)
Aug 31st UCD 3-1 Bray Wanderers (McMillan, P O’Conor, Lyons)
UCD are still missing the injured goalkeeper John Kelly (thigh), while top scorer Graham Rusk (shin), midfielders Chris Mulhall (groin) and striker Cillian Morrison (ankle) have all increased their rehab and were back jogging and kicking a ball in training with physio Dave Clancy during the week, all three are quite close to a return to full training.
Tom O’Halloran (groin) remains a long term absentee, Sean Russell (groin) is still a couple of weeks away from a return while centre back David O’Connor (hamstring) is a doubt for Friday’s game.
Tomas Boyle didn’t train yesterday due to flu but should be ok for Friday.
Due to the growing injury list, manager Martin Russell has promoted five of the U19s to the first team squad for the remainder of the season. Defenders Liam Traynor and Sean Coyne, and midfielders Robbie Slater, Ayman Ben Mohamad and Colm Crowe.
Manager Martin Russell’s thoughts on the game: “We are playing against a Dundalk team who were very unlucky not to get something at Dundalk last week and new manager Darius Kierans has them playing well and for each other so we know it will be a tough game.”
He also spoke about last week’s 3-1 win over Bray: “We managed to get a vital win against Bray but we are continuing to strive to play better and we are not getting carried away with results.”
“Dundalk won’t want to lose any more ground and we are looking forward to a competitive game”
