Shamrock Rovers vs St Patrick’s Athletic
Football : Republic of Ireland : Artricty League
Tuesday 16th March 2010 – Kick off 8.00 PM

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The second series of games in the Airtricty League take place this week. One game that stands out is Tuesday night’s Dublin derby between Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic at Tallaght Stadium.

Shamrock Rovers

The Hoops faced a tricky trip to The Showgrounds in their first game of the Airtricity League to take on Paul Cook’s Sligo Rovers side. The Hoops got off to the worst possible start when they fell a goal behind early on but claimed a point from the game following a James Chambers penalty in the second half.

Last season's runners up will be happy with the solitary point as Sligo were pushing for a winner late on and even hit the crossbar.

Michael O’Neill’s men have been hit with a bit of an injury crisis at the moment. Attacking players Gary Twigg and Dessie Baker are both ruled out of Tuesday’s clash with The Saints. With two of Rovers’ key players missing, they may struggle to create chances and more importantly, score.

Twigg and Baker netted a combined total of 32 league goals last season and if either are to be missing for any length of time it will be a major blow to The Hoops as they look to overhaul rivals Bohemians this season.

St Patrick’s Athletic

St Pat’s got their season off to the perfect start last Friday night with a 2-0 home win over Galway United. However the score line doesn’t bare all the details of the game as Galway had a man sent off in the 17th minute. Something which hindered any chance they had of getting a result in Inchicore.

St Pat’s captain Damian Lynch said nothing but a win was acceptable before the game and his squad obliged with a fine performance. St Pat’s were battling with relegation last season and will be looking to put that behind them in 2010. Pete Mahon’s men are expected to finish in the top-half of the table and if they are to compete in the league a trip to Tallaght stadium should be interesting.

Four days later The Saints travelled to Windsor Park to take on Linfield in their Setanta Sports Cup encounter and despite losing the game, St Pat's have qualified to the Semi Finals of the Setanta Cup where they will face Sligo Rovers.

The Betting Verdict :

Neither team will want to lose this game and both sets of supports will be looking for all three points. With Rovers missing Twigg and Baker I fail to see any spark for them up front.

I’m going to go with The Saints to cause an upset in Tallaght on Tuesday. Ryan Guy looked very sharp against Galway and Pete Mahon looks to have the team focused.

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take St Patrick’s Athletic draw no bet (9/4 Paddy Power) Confidence 7/10

Consider Under 2.5 goals (8/13 Paddy Power) Confidence 8/10