Sligo Rovers look to bounce back against St Patrick's Athletic after double Dublin defeat

Sligo Rovers will look to stay in touch in the top half of the table as they welcome St Patrick's Athletic to The Showgrounds this evening, kick-off 7:45pm.

The Bit O’Red would find themselves seven points adrift of the automatic European places should they suffer a defeat to third_____-placed Saints (check Dundalk result & position from Friday night), and could end the weekend in the bottom half of the table (remove bolded if Bohs lost to Dundalk).

Saints are the side with form coming into the fixture as the Dublin club took four points over last weekend’s double header, where they beat Drogheda 4-0 before securing an impressive points against league leaders, Derry City, who lost top spot as a result of the stalemate.

Sligo, on the other hand, lost twice last weekend on the road, with defeats to Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne, but will look to the first game between the sides where Liam Buckley’s side got the better of the manager’s former team.

Bit O’ Red 'keeper Ed McGinty should return to the squad following injury, and Shane Blaney and David Cawley will also return, but Max Mata will miss out having hobbled off on Monday. Jordan Hamilton and Nando Pijnaker are also doubts.

‘’We were bitterly disappointed not to pick up any results over the weekend last week," said Sligo Rovers manager, Liam Buckley.

"I thought we didn’t start well in Tolka Park against Shelbourne and some mistakes on our part cost us a couple of goals. The second half was better but, overall, we know we need to do better.

"We started much better on Monday night. I thought we passed it well at times but just couldn’t create any clear-cut chances in the first half. Even in the second half we created more chances and could have had two or three goals