The action heats up in week 3 of the SSE Airtricity League with a big Dublin derby, a meeting between 2nd and 3rd last year and the Champions first game on TV on the slate. Here's what you need to know;
1) Who'll get the bragging rights in the big Bohs/Rovers derby?
Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers set aside the most bitter of rivalries this week to visit kids in Temple Street hospital. It's the first of two planned visits to kids hospitals by the clubs. As the picture above shows, it was all smiles for the players on both teams. That won't be the case tonight. While Bohs have stuggled somewhat in the league the last 2/3 seasons, they have always raised their game for Rovers and are unbeaten in 5 league ties (3 wins, 2 draws) against their Tallaght rivals. Rovers would have been favourites in all 5 of them and that's the case again tonight. Bohs have had no trouble scoring so far this season and last week Rovers hit 4 in Athlone so a high scoring exciting derby is on the cards.
2) Can Sligo Rovers get back on track at home to Dundalk?
Sligo Rovers surprisingly lost last week away to Bray Wanderers but they can usually rely on their home form to get them back to winning ways. They only lost once at home in the league last year but that was to Saturday night's visitors Dundalk, who won thanks to a long range Dane Massey volley that surprised Gary Rogers in goal. Dundalk will be hoping for a better away performance than their league opening 4-1 deafeat in Drogheda. Both of these sides have title ambitions and a defeat for either will leave them on 3 points after 3 games.
3) Will we finally get an entertaining game on TV?
Both live games on RTE this season have been drab affairs with no side attempting to up the tempo in either game. Tomorrow sees the usually entertaining St Patrick's Athletic host Limerick in Inchicore and their last couple of TV outings saw them win with a couple of great goals from Daryl Kavanagh and Greg Bolger too. With players like Fahey, Quigley, Brennan and Forrester in the team, they'll always look to entertain. Stuart Taylor won't care about entertainment as he looks to pick up the points for Limerick. Last year they were on live TV twice and both games finished scoreless. The game kicks off at 3.15 on RTE 2 and for the sake of TV, let's hope there's some entertainig football.
4) If Derry City lose to Drogheda United, will Roddy Collins be under pressure already?
Roddy Collins is a polarising figure in LOI circles. One of only 4 managers in the league to have won a league title (and the only manager to have wona double), Roddy has shown he can win. It's not all positive and as we mentioned in our season preview, that double win in 2001 was the last time Colllins finished a full season in the Premier Division. He easily won promotion with Athlone last season but his Derry team have started this season with a point from their opening 2 games. This week Derry stalwart Kevin Deery said he was released (he had been out of contract anyway). He wasn't very kind to Roddy about his handling of the affair. The season will only be 3 games in but if they lose to Drogheda United, how will the Derry fans react to Collins?
5) Can Cork City get the public out again?
A huge crowd turned out for Cork City's opening game against St Pats (helped by a strong marketing campaign from the club). Last week they picked up their first win (on TV too) so they'll be hopeful a big crowd returns for the visit of Bray Wanderers. The task for Cork seems a fair but harder than it did 3 weeks ago. Bray looked in disarray but have yet to concede so far with a scoreless draw in Limerick and a brilliant win over Sligo last week. Both Cork's goals this season have come from set piece headers and they'll be hoping to create more tonight to entertain the home fans.
Whatever happens, enjoy the games!
