Team news: away v Dundalk

There are doubts about the availability of Craig Sives (chest infection), Stephen Rice (calf) and Paddy Kavanagh (hamstring). Otherwise Shamrock Rovers are at full strength.

v Dundalk

League of Ireland Premier Division 2009

Friday October 23rd, Oriel Park (KO 7.45pm)

Says Hoops’ boss Michael O’Neill: “Craig is over his chest infection but hasn’t trained for most of the week. We’ll see how Stephen and Paddy are after late fitness tests.”

MICHAEL O’NEILL ON:

Last Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat against Cork City

“Obviously we’re disappointed, very disappointed. We just looked a bit tired, to be honest. We got off to a great start and maybe, mentally, we then felt we had something to protect. “I didn’t feel we were in any great trouble at any point in the first half. We had another good chance where Robbo shoots wide of the far post. “But we’ve got through the last few weeks where we’ve got a lot of injuries and people haven’t really recognised that, really. “And we were playing with Ian Bermingham and Darragh Maguire back in the side. They’d not played football in between 4-6 weeks each and that’s a big ask of players, so I just felt that at times it caught up with us. “We were missing bodies: Stephen Bradley, Paddy Kavanagh, Gary Twigg, Craig Sives – they’re all important players for us. “But I’m proud of the players – I thought their effort was magnificent. They did everything to try and get ourselves back in the game and we got caught with two sucker punches.”

The end of the unbeaten run

“We won the last seven games and had a 22-game unbeaten run - you don’t do that unless you’re a good team, so the players deserve a lot of credit for that. “Bohemians are back on top, but there’s still a lot to play for: there are three games to go, they now have to deal with the situation of being back on top and we just have to get back to winning ways on Friday night.”

Bouncing back

“One thing I’ll say about this group of players is that any time that’s happened, they’ve reacted favourably. We drew at home to Dundalk, and certain people reacted as if it was the end of the world, but we subsequently went and won the next seven league games in a row. “We were beaten by Fingal – again, it was the end of the world, when basically it was the toss of a coin in the FAI Ford Cup. We came back and won games. “So every time there’s been that situation this season, the players have reacted well, and come back from it. I’ve no doubt they’ll do the same again.” “It didn’t really matter whether we drew or lost against Cork, with Bohs’ goal difference. But if Bohemians should slip, we have to be ready to capitalise. So we’ll just focus on winning the last three games.”

Friday’s game against Dundalk

“We’ve already won up there this season, despite playing most the game with ten men. It’ll be tough, of course, but we’re looking to win and we’ll see what happens elsewhere.”

Shamrock Rovers v Dundalk so far this season

P 3 W 2 D 1 L 0 F 6 A 3

Apr 7, Oriel Park

Dundalk 0                Rovers (0) 1

                             Rice 11’

Jun 2, Tallaght Stadium

Rovers (1) 3            Dundalk (0) 1

Twigg 36’ 87’           Daly 66’

Baker 90’

Aug 22, Tallaght Stadium

Rovers (2) 2            Dundalk (0) 2

Rice 24’                   Williams 67’

Twigg 31’                Burns 87’

Premier Positions

                   P        W       D        L        F        A        Pts     Pos

Rovers          33      20      9        4        46      23      69      2nd

Dundalk         33      12      8        13      42      43      44      5th