After progressing through in the FAI Cup past Cabinteely 3-0 last week Rovers look to continue the good form at Galway United.
Tomorrow’s Connacht Derby in Eamonn Deacy Park will kick-off at 3pm.
It is the second meeting of the year with a 1-1 draw between the teams at The Showgrounds in March. Liam Martin and Ruairi Keating got the night’s goals then.
Overall in the head-to-head Rovers hold the upper hand on the local rivals with 32 wins to 17 in league fixtures. Last year on trips to
Galway Rovers won the first 1-0 before Galway reversed it with a 2-1 victory later in the season.
The win against Cabinteely in which Kieran Sadlier scored two and Jimmy Keohane the other puts Rovers onto a run of five wins from six since an EA Sports Cup loss to Derry City April 19.
Only top two sides Dundalk and Cork City have earned more points than The Bit o’Red during that period of time.
Suspension rules two out for Rovers as Michael Leahy serves a one game ban for his sending off against Bohemians in Rovers most recent league game.
Captain Craig Roddan joins him due to an accumulation of yellow cards.
Gavin Peers returned from a thigh injury against Cabinteely and came through the 90 minutes well and is back to full fitness.
Tim Clancy will miss this game with his ongoing injury and will be miss next week also as he aims for a return to full fitness after the mid-season break.
Dave Robertson brings his confident Rovers team to Galway United for a Sundayafternoon Connacht Derby.
He is chasing a pair of wins in the final two SSE Airtricity League games to be played before the season takes a break.
He will have to deal without two recent regulars in his team in Michael Leahy and Craig Roddan but he says the squad has shown all year that there is always others waiting to come in and do well:
“We have got a good squad and there is competition for places. We have found that when we needed to make changes before – those who have come in responded well. But there will be no drastic changes for this game, we just have two players missing for one game. I am sure the lads that play will all give 100% effort and that is the minimum requirement expected.”
There has been an eight-day wait until the fixture at Galway which has given Robertson the chance to work with his side on many things:
“We have worked on everything. We have been preparing for this Sunday, working on our togetherness and on our tempo to get that quick attacking style that we want to play with. But it is mainly refining some of the finer details to our play.
“We are going into this game with confidence. Having won five of our last six games the team is full of confidence. We need to make sure that we continue that too because this will be a tough game. They have a strong squad but haven’t been fortunate with their results in recent weeks. It would be a real positive for us to get the win and that is what we aim to do.”
The Rovers manager has been impressed by how Galway have surpassed many expectations with the start they have made to the 2016 season:
“They had a really bright start to the season have done well since. But there is just a five point gap between the two of us now. We will be chasing two wins here and next week to go into the break. We know that Galway have been billing this as a big game but we see it as an opportunity to pull closer to them. Three points here and next week would set us up well going into the second part of the season.
“The fine details will be key in this game as they are in any game really. It will be played in a competitive way for the full 90 minutes, from both teams. It will be an exciting game and may have more than one goal in it. I expect it to be a really good game of football and an excellent one to watch.”
The game will be live on Ocean FM, with Alan Keane joining Daniel Kelly on commentary.
