Sligo Rovers play host to Bray Wanderers at The Showgrounds this Saturday, August 10th. The reigning champions will be looking to close the gap on current league leaders St. Patrick's Athletic.
Sligo will head into this feeling confident as favourites. From their two meetings so far this campaign, Rovers have come through having taken 4 points from 6 available against Bray, having beaten them 3-0 at home in March and being held to a scoreless draw in the return fixture in the Carlisle Grounds two months later.
The home side head into the game full of confidence following their recent 2-1 away win against Derry City thanks to goals from David Cawley and Danny North. This win in Derry spelled the end of three consecutive games without victory and other than this win in the Brandywell, the Bit o' Red's recent league form has been less than convincing having only won one of the last four games, and three of the last six.
With this in mind, the home side will no doubt be looking to take advantage of their visitor's fragile defence which has leaked 49 goals in the league this season, only three less than the leagues worst defence which is UCD. This is a worry for Bray as Sligo have the ability to score goals from anywhere on the pitch, with 14 of the 20 players who have played this season having scored at some stage so far meaning they have more goalscorers than any other side this season.
Rover's key man in this fixture could very likely prove to be striker Danny North, who certainly knows how to find the net and more so than ever when he faces the Seagulls, with 7 of his 37 goals in the League of Ireland coming against the Wanderers, a higher return than against any other club.
Bray travel to the Showgrounds with a less than impressive run of form themselves, having seen their best form of the season come to a emphatic end with no win from their last seven games. The last time they picked up all three points was in a crazy nine-goal-thriller in which they came out as 5-4 winners over relegation rivals UCD. Since they last won, they have drawn three and lost four.
Pat Devlin will be happy that he has a full squad to choose from bar one, with Ismahil Akinade being the only absentee through suspension for his sides trip west. Shane O'Connor returns to the side having missed the last two games.
Devlin says that the attitude in the Bray camp is good, but admitted that they will need an element of luck to come out of the game on Saturday with a positive result when speaking to braywanderers.ie.
"We are looking forward to going to the Showgrounds, our attitude to date has been very good and our play has been good. We need to polish up on a few things and hope we get the breaks," said Devlin.
Betting odds courtesy of Paddy Power:
Sligo Rovers - 1/4
Draw - 9/2
Bray Wanderers - 9/1
Danny North first goalscorer and Sligo Rovers to win 3-0 - 16/1
Follow Conor Clancy on Twitter: @conorclancy9
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