Dundalk go into tomorrow night’s game against Waterford sitting a pretty ten points clear at the top of the table, they will also be buoyed on by last weekend’s EA Sports Cup final win when they came from behind twice before beating Derry City on penalties. Last week’s win means that a treble is very much still on for Vinny Perth’s side in what is shaping up to be a memorable first season in charge for the former Lilywhites midfielder.
Dundalk are very much in the driving seat but Perth will certainly not want his players resting on their laurels, especially with closest challengers Shamrock Rovers hoping to take advantage of any slip-ups. Rovers perhaps have a marginally more favourable run in and of course the two sides still have to meet each other once more on Monday night. Tomorrow Rovers face a St. Patrick’s Athletic side who are still in the hunt for European football this summer.
Also in the case for the final European spot are Derry City and Bohemians, who meet tonight at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium. Currently, Bohemians occupy that final spot but a win for Declan Devine’s side tonight will see them leapfrog the Bohs and they will still have a game in hand.
The full fixture list for tomorrow is as follows, all games kick off at 19:45 unless otherwise stated:
Cork City v Finn Harps
Derry City v Bohemians
U.C.D. v Sligo Rovers
Waterford v Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers v St. Patrick’s Athletic (tomorrow night at 20:00)
The league SSE Airtricity League Premier Division table looks like this at present:-
| Pos | Club | Pl | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
| 1 | Dundalk | 30 | 23 | 5 | 2 | 63 | 13 | 50 | 74 |
| 2 | Shamrock Rovers | 30 | 20 | 4 | 6 | 53 | 18 | 35 | 64 |
| 3 | Bohemians | 31 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 42 | 26 | 16 | 49 |
| 4 | Derry City | 30 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 45 | 29 | 16 | 47 |
| 5 | St. Patrick’s Athletic | 31 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 26 | 28 | -2 | 47 |
| 6 | Sligo Rovers | 31 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 34 | 41 | -7 | 38 |
| 7 | Waterford | 31 | 9 | 7 | 15 | 38 | 49 | -11 | 34 |
| 8 | Cork City | 30 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 25 | 39 | -14 | 30 |
| 9 | Finn Harps | 31 | 6 | 5 | 20 | 25 | 59 | -34 | 23 |
| 10 | U.C.D. | 31 | 5 | 3 | 23 | 21 | 70 | -49 | 18 |
It was a poor week for our writers last week in our prediction league with Keith, Bryan and Cameron scoring a grand total of zero points and no one else got more than a single point. This means that Darren is still ahead, leaving Cameron by three points and Bryan by four.
The full leaderboard looks like this:-
| 1: Darren | 84 |
| 2: Cameron | 81 |
| 3: Bryan | 80 |
| 4: Rodney | 71 |
| 5: Liam | 69 |
| 6: Keith | 65 |
| 7: Adrian | 61 |
As usual, it’s three points for predicting the correct result and a point for the correct outcome, Liam kicks things off this week:
Liam
Cork City 1-1 Finn Harps
Derry City 2-1 Bohemians
U.C.D. 0-2 Sligo Rovers
Waterford 0-4 Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers 3-0 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Rodney
Cork City 2-0 Finn Harps
Derry City 2-1 Bohemians
U.C.D. 1-3 Sligo Rovers
Waterford 0-3 Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers 2-0 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Darren
Cork City 1-0 Finn Harps
Derry City 2-1 Bohemians
U.C.D. 0-0 Sligo Rovers
Waterford 0-2 Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers 2-0 St Patrick’s Athletic
Keith
Cork City 0-1 Finn Harps
Derry City 2-1 Bohemians
U.C.D. 1-3 Sligo Rovers
Waterford 0-5 Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers 1-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Bryan
Cork City 1-0 Finn Harps
Derry City 2-2 Bohemians
U.C.D. 1-3 Sligo Rovers
Waterford 0-3 Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers 2-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Adrian
Cork City 1-1 Finn Harps
Derry City 2-3 Bohemians
U.C.D. 0-3 Sligo Rovers
Waterford 1-3 Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers 1-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Cameron
Cork City 1-0 Finn Harps
Derry City 1-1 Bohemians
U.C.D. 2-1 Sligo Rovers
Waterford 0-2 Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers 3-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Saturday is the last day of the SSE Airtricity League First Division but there will be no last day drama as Shelbourne have already wrapped up the league title and secured top-flight football for the first time since 2013. Drogheda, Longford and Cabinteely have also secured a further shot at promotion via the play-offs. Nevertheless, there are still five games being played on Saturday as follows, all kicking off at 19:45:
Athlone Town v Galway United
Bray Wanderers v Drogheda United
Cobh Ramblers v Longford Town
Shelbourne v Limerick
Wexford v Cabinteely
Here are the league standings for the First Division:
| Pos | Club | Pl | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
| 1 | Shelbourne | 26 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 43 | 19 | 24 | 57 |
| 2 | Drogheda United | 26 | 16 | 3 | 7 | 58 | 32 | 26 | 51 |
| 3 | Longford Town | 26 | 15 | 3 | 8 | 38 | 22 | 16 | 48 |
| 4 | Cabinteely | 26 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 37 | 27 | 10 | 47 |
| 5 | Bray Wanderers | 26 | 13 | 4 | 9 | 40 | 25 | 15 | 43 |
| 6 | Limerick | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 33 | 34 | -1 | 36 |
| 7 | Cobh Ramblers | 26 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 37 | 48 | -11 | 31 |
| 8 | Galway United | 26 | 7 | 4 | 15 | 34 | 40 | -6 | 25 |
| 9 | Athlone Town | 26 | 4 | 5 | 17 | 28 | 59 | -31 | 17 |
| 10 | Wexford | 26 | 2 | 5 | 19 | 21 | 63 | -42 | 11 |
Join us again tomorrow as we give you our predictions for the top flight fixtures north of the border and take a closer look at tomorrow’s League of Ireland games.
