Welcome along to the Irish Independent\u2019s Friday night blog dedicated to keeping you abreast of all things League of Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taking top billing at Tallaght Stadium this evening is the meeting of two Dublin rivals currently sitting in the upper echelons of the Premier Division table with leaders Shamrock Rovers two points ahead of opponents Bohemians (and St Patrick\u2019s Athletic) on 20 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bohs have a great record in this fixture in recent times \u2013 winning three out of four clashes in 2025 \u2013 and when the sides faced off at Dalymount Park in February, the host stormed into a three-goal lead before the Hoops scored twice in injury-time to give the result a degree of respectability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the defending champions are beginning to move through the gears as we head towards a busy period of fixtures and, by contrast, Alan Reynolds\u2019 men are without a win in their last five matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over at Tolka Park, it\u2019s sixth versus seventh and both clubs involved would undoubtedly have hoped to be in higher positions at this stage of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shelbourne come into the game on the back of two defeats, while Derry City have been way below-par and you wonder how much longer Tiernan Lynch\u2019s tenure will continue if the poor form continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Having briefly occupied top of the table after putting an impressive run together, Pat\u2019s have lost in their last two outings. The Saints are at Sullivan & Lambe Park, to take on a Drogeda United side winless in eight after a bright start to the campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two of the division\u2019s in-form teams are in action at Oriel Park. Dundalk and Galway United were both tipped to struggle before a ball was kicked but at the moment they are looking good to push for the European spots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ciar\u00e1n Kilduff has earned major plaudits for his work with the Lilywhites, and rightly so. The up-and-coming manager goes toe-to-toe with one of the league\u2019s wily old heads, John Caulfield, who has yet again worked wonders at Galway United.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, Sligo Rovers host Waterford at the Showgrounds in a relegation six-pointer but, back to tonight, all 10 First Division clubs are set to line out with the top two \u2013 Cork City and Wexford \u2013 doing battle at Turner\u2019s Cross.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome along to the Irish Independent\u2019s Friday night blog dedicated to keeping you abreast of all things League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14645,14646,14640,2538,16488,61,60,43,11113,25201,14644,16489,6513],"class_list":{"0":"post-403838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-bohemian-fc","9":"tag-derry-city","10":"tag-drogheda-united-fc","11":"tag-dundalk-fc","12":"tag-galway-united-fc","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-shamrock-rovers","17":"tag-shelbourne","18":"tag-sligo-rovers","19":"tag-st-patricks-athletic-fc","20":"tag-waterford"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}