LOI preview: Saints aim to make it famous five as Shamrock Rovers visit Inchicore

St Patrick's Athletic host Shamrock Rovers tonight as both sides look to continue their superb recent form.

A 2-2 St Patrick’s Day draw in Tallaght Stadium began a Saints revival, while adding further concerns to Hoops' slow start to the year.

Since then, Pat’s have reeled off four victories, while only a draw at home to Shelbourne stopped the champions doing the same.

Remarkably Pat’s sit in second place in the table, going from ninth place all the way to being the closest outfit to Bohemians.

Shamrock Rovers have almost overturned Derry’s large advantage to be just a point behind their supposed main title rival.

It all leads to an intriguing game to test the mettle of both of their progress in the last month.

The sold-out signs were up early in Inchicore. Last week’s 3-2 victory over Bohemians was far from perfect but showed their ability to hit the net with ease. It’s 15 goals in five matches for Tim Clancy’s men.

Clancy said: "After a great win at Dalymount, we're looking forward to being back at home in Inchicore in another Dublin Derby in front of another sell out. Richmond will be buzzing on Friday.

"We've been doing very well in the last few weeks and we know where we are it at the moment, we've got a massive task against arguably the best team in the country tomorrow night, they are in good form themselves too.

"We played them a few weeks ago and drew 2-2, both teams were in a completely different place then, we had lost three in a row and they were looking for their first win, since then both teams have picked up a lot of points and the table looks a bit different so we're hoping to keep our run going."

Danny Rogers [thumb], Tom Grivosti [hamstring], Harry Brockbank [calf] continue to miss out through injury. Captain Joe