The SSE Airtricity League Premier Division is back tonight!
The first game of the 2021 season will see last season’s First Division champions host Waterford at Head in the Game Park. Tim Clancy’s side have spend the last three seasons in the second tier and will be hoping to return to the top flight in style.
Waterford missed out on Europe by a point last season so will be hoping they can build on that this season but will have to do so with a new man at the helm. There was a lot of upheaval last season with Alan Reynolds, John Sheridan and Fran Rockett all managing the club at various points last season but in December former Everton player and 46 times capped Republic of Ireland international Kevin Sheedy was appointed as the club’s new permanent manager.
There has also been a managerial change at Oriel Park, as having dominated the division for much of the past decade Dundalk finished in a disappointing 3rd place and were 22 points off the eventual champions. The only consolation for The Lilywhites was that they did manage to win the FAI Cup for the 12th team. The poor season saw Vinny Perth sacked as manager after just 18 months in charge and he was replaced by Italian, Filippo Giovagnoli, but he has since been replaced as manager by Shane Keegan with Giovagnoli staying on the coaching staff. The new manager has an away trip to start his reign as Dundalk make the trip north to play Sligo Rovers.
Last season’s league winners, Shamrock Rovers, begin their defence of the title tonight they have a home game against fellow Dublin side St. Patrick’s Athletic and will be aiming to get off to the best start possible. With last season’s campaign being cut to 18 games due to the pandemic no doubt Rovers will want to prove their title win was no fluke by winning it over the course of a full 26 game campaign.
Here is the full fixture list for the weekend, all games kick off tomorrow (Saturday 20th March) at 18:00 unless otherwise stated: –
Drogheda United v Waterford (Friday 19th March at 17:45)
Shamrock Rovers v St. Patrick’s Athletic (Friday 19th March at 19:45)
Finn Harps v Bohemians
Longford Town v Derry City
Sligo Rovers v Dundalk
Once again, our team is back with our weekly prediction league were they try to work out how each game is going to go every week. Each contestant will get three points for predicting a result correctly and a point for predicting the outcome of a game correctly. Whoever has the most points at the end of the season is crowned king of League of Ireland Premier Division predictions and gets all the glory that comes with that!
Kicking us off with the new season last season’s winner, Rodney!
Rodney
Drogheda United 2-1 Waterford
Shamrock Rovers 3-0 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Finn Harps 1-2 Bohemians
Longford Town 1-2 Derry City
Sligo Rovers 1-2 Dundalk
Richard
Drogheda United 3-0 Waterford
Shamrock Rovers 2-0 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Finn Harps 4-0 Bohemians
Longford Town 0-3 Derry City
Sligo Rovers 0-4 Dundalk
Darren
Drogheda United 2-0 Waterford
Shamrock Rovers 2-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Finn Harps 1-2 Bohemians
Longford Town 0-1 Derry City
Sligo Rovers 1-3 Dundalk
Keith
Drogheda United 1-1 Waterford
Shamrock Rovers 2-0 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Finn Harps 0-1 Bohemians
Longford Town 0-0 Derry City
Sligo Rovers 2-1 Dundalk
Cameron
Drogheda United 2-1 Waterford
Shamrock Rovers 3-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Finn Harps 1-3 Bohemians
Longford Town 0-2 Derry City
Sligo Rovers 1-0 Dundalk
Liam
Drogheda United 1-2 Waterford
Shamrock Rovers 4-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Finn Harps 0-2 Bohemians
Longford Town 0-0 Derry City
Sligo Rovers 2-1 Dundalk
Adrian
Drogheda United 1-1 Waterford
Shamrock Rovers 2-0 St. Patrick’s Athletic
Finn Harps 0-3 Bohemians
Longford Town 0-2 Derry City
Sligo Rovers 1-1 Dundalk
