Some of us are still climbing down from the euphoria of last night’s Northern Ireland win that moves us one step closer to the European Championships and some are still getting over the disappointment of the Republic of Ireland’s defeat against Slovakia that ended their hopes of qualifying for the tournament but today our attention turns back to domestic football as we continue our prediction league for the SSE Airtricity Premier Division.
There’s only two games in the top flight down south tonight this weekend, there was to be a third but St. Pat’s v Dundalk has been postponed after a positive Covid-19 test in the St. Pat’s camp and of course our thoughts are with whoever that may be and we wish them well.
This leaves 2nd placed Bohemians playing basement side Cork and a European chasing Waterford playing Shelbourne as the only two fixtures of the weekend.
The Bohs trial current leaders Shamrock Rovers by eight points going into tonight’s game and with just four games remaining anything other than a win will all but end Keith Long’s sides slim title hopes. Neale Fenn’s Cork side haven’t won in any competition since they defeated Sligo 3-0 on the 14th August but they have picked up draws recently on the road against Shelbourne and Finn Harps. The bottom side are four points from guaranteed safety and two points off a spot in the relegation/promotion play-off. They do have a game in hand but have some tricky games coming up even after tonight’s game.
Waterford currently are in the driving seat in the race to achieve the final European spot of the season. they are sitting 3rd but have St. Pat’s, Sligo, Dundalk and Derry breathing down their necks and bear in mind Dundalk will have played three games less than them by the end of this weekend.
Mathematically speaking Shelbourne themselves could still qualify for Europe but Ian Morris’ side have more pressing concerns. After initially appearing to acclimatise well to life back in the top flight they have hit a bit of a bump in the road and now sit only two points above the dreaded relegation/promotion play-off and four points above bottom spot.
There is also some First Division fixtures tonight and tomorrow as we head towards the conclusion of that division. Currently the league is led by Bray and their nearest challengers, Drogheda, sit two points behind. The play-off spots are currently occupied by Drogheda, Cabinteely Longford and U.C.D. with Galway and Cobh looking to take advantage of any slip ups.
The full First Division fixture list for this weekend is as follows, all games kick off tonight at 19:45 unless otherwise stated: –
Athlone Town v U.C.D.
Cabinteely v Longford Town
Wexford v Cobh Ramblers
Shamrock Rovers II v Bray Wanderers (Saturday 10th October at 15:00)
Galway v Drogheda has been postponed tonight following two positive tests in the Galway squad, again we wish those effected the very best.
Unfortunately due to technical difficulties we have not been able to provide our writer’s leaderboard this week but this will be updated for next week. As usual the team will get three points for predicting the result of one of the weekend’s fixtures or a point for predicting the correct outcome.
Up first this week is Rodney with his predictions.
Rodney (Marie Curie Cancer Care)
Bohemians 2-0 Cork City
Waterford 2-0 Shelbourne
Liam (Irish Cancer Society)
Bohemians 3-1 Cork City
Waterford 3-0 Shelbourne
Keith (North-West Hospital)
Bohemians 4-0 Cork City
Waterford 2-0 Shelbourne
Richard (The National Autistic Society)
Bohemians 2-0 Cork City
Waterford 2-0 Shelbourne
Adrian (Alzheimer’s Society)
Bohemians 4-1 Cork City
Waterford 1-0 Shelbourne
Cameron (Prostate Cancer UK)
Bohemians 3-1 Cork City
Waterford 1-0 Shelbourne
