St Patricks Athletic v Galway United
Football: League Of Ireland Premier Division
Friday 5th March Kick Off 7.45pm

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St Pats will come into the new season a much more confident side than the one which finished in the bottom half of the table last season. They have lost one of their star players in Mark Quigley to Champions Bohemians but have made some good additions to their own squad. From opponents Galway they got 2 of their best players from last season in Striker Vinny Faherty and defender Shane Guthrie and both have impressed in pre-season.

They also got one of the best players from the First Division last season in David McCallister from Shelbourne. McCallister scored 19 goals from Midfield in the second tier of Irish football but still an outstanding achievement and is expected to be a big hit in the Premier Division too. Former Dundalk player Alex Williams also signed for St Pats. Williams was outstanding for Dundalk when he signed halfway through the season scoring plenty of goals too.

St Pats will be expecting a better finish than 7th out of the 10 sides last season and expect them to be aiming for top 4 anyway. New manager Pete Mahon is one of best and most experienced managers around the league and has improved the side a lot since coming in as caretaker manager after departure of Jeff Kenna last season. Kenna's reign was a flop however it did take in a good European adventure where they knocked out Russian side Sovietov and eventually lost to Steau Bucharest after a brave performance.

Galway were one of the favourites for relegation last season and surprised a lot of people with a good season which never really saw them drop into the relegation battle and were only a couple of points off finishing in the top half. They eventually finished 8th in the league only a point behind St Pats. Incredibly Galway beat St Pats 4 times last season but still finished a point behind them!

Galway have lost some big players including Jay O Shea to Birmingham City at end of last season and as mentioned above Shane Guthrie and Vinny Faherty to St Pats. They are big losses, they have brought in players such as former St Pats players Bobby Ryan and Barry Ryan as well as Thomas Heary from Dundalk but they are all players who have seen better days. New Boss Sean Connor is known for his sides to play in a tough battling style and his Galway side might need plenty of that this season.

VERDICT

ST PATRICKS ATHLETIC SHOULD WIN this and are available at 8/11 in BET 365. They have got a very experienced new manager in Pete Mahon and have made some good pre-season signings and will definitely be out to break their bad recent record against Galway.

The Pick :

St Patricks Athletic 2-0 Galway United

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

ST PATRICKS ATHLETIC TO WIN